From Max Roser at Our World in Data showing “Life expectancy in 1800, 1950, and 2010.”
A few points by AEI:
a. Life expectancy in 1800, at a global average of 29 years, probably wasn’t much different from life expectancy over the previous several thousand years.
b. In 1950, the median retirement age for men in the US was 66.9 years and 67.7 years for women according to BLS data here, when life expectancy (probably at birth) was 68 years. Assuming that life expectancy was longer than 68 years for women and shorter than 68 years for men, that would mean that the average time in retirement for many or most Americans was pretty close to zero years. Stated differently, at some point in the 20th Century (if not in 1950), the average American died around the time they retired.
c. The doubling, or near doubling of life expectancy between 1950 to 2015 in parts of Asia (e.g., India from 35 to 68 years), the Middle East and Africa is truly remarkable.