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Jonathan Harston's avatar

Barely over 100 years ago the age profile of the UK population was near enough a straight line triangle from 10 years to death: https://mdfs.net/Docs/Whitby/Census/1901/Ages1901.txt

Today it is near enough a flat horizontal: https://mdfs.net/Docs/Whitby/Census/2021/Ages2021.txt

What is amazing is that people just so much don't realise that this is abnormal - that until very very recently, CHILDREN DYING WAS NORMAL.

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Bloke in Wales's avatar

"In 2021 we expected 0.8 children to die per live birth. "

Citation needed there, I think!

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Tim Worstall's avatar

You could be right

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Geoff Beacon's avatar

"This is the thing to remember about the past - it was an absolutely vile place."

The vileness of the present is catching up.

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Quentin Vole's avatar

"Tom Brown's School Days" famously mentions an outbreak of diphtheria at Rugby in the 1830s. It isn't made to sound particularly unusual.

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Jacqueline W's avatar

Indeed or the begjnning of Jane Eyre, based on the real life experiences of Charlotte losing two older sisters to tuberculosis.

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