Life expectancy wasn’t great.
Unknown Author/Wikimedia Commons
Unknown Author/Wikimedia Commons
Despite the significant technological leaps of the era, the average person in Victorian England still had a rough go of it. Professor Sarah Richardson told History Extra that the outlook was “pretty grim.”
“Life expectancy at birth for the average Victorian was about 42, and more than 25 per cent of children died before their fifth birthday,” she explained. “Of course, there was some light on the horizon — universal education came in during the 1870s.”