Helsinki-Conference on Gerontechnology

Twice as many years as our ancestors: and the concept of a life plan

Keynote address by Arthur E. Imhof


The figure shows the increasing rectangularisation of the survival curves of German men (left) and women (right) between 1871/80 and 1990/92. More and more newborns are surviving childhood, youth, and adulthood, and are approaching the maximum average life expectancy of our species, i. e. around 85 years. .

Source: CD-ROM Historical Demography (1995), Fig. 39.