Adult Lifespans of European Nobility from 800 to 1800

A collection of 115,650 records of adult age at death for European nobles spanning the years 800 to 1800. It was created by Neil Cummins to analyze longevity trends, showing increases around 1400 and 1650. The data supports replication of the associated paper's analysis using R code.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in adult age at death over the 1000-year period from 800 to 1800.
• Investigate spatial mortality contours by comparing longevity between North-West Europe and other regions.
• Assess the contribution of declines in violent deaths from battle to overall lifespan increases.
• Model the timing of longevity increases, such as those noted around 1400 and 1650, relative to historical events.

Strengths

• Large historical sample of 115,650 individual records.
• Extensive temporal coverage spanning 1000 years from 800 to 1800.
• Data is structured to replicate published tables and figures, supporting verification.

Limitations

• Limited to the European elite (nobles), not representative of the general population.
• Adult age at death is the primary variable; other demographic or contextual details are unknown.
• The data format and specific variables (columns) are not described in the input.

Provenance

Source

Neil Cummins via ICPSR Harvested Dataverse.

Collection Method

Archival data compiled for academic analysis of noble lifespans.

Time Range

800 to 1800.

Freshness

null

Geography

Europe, with noted spatial contours including North-West Europe.