Lifespans of the European Elite: 115,650 Records from 800-1800

115,650 records of European noble lifespans spanning the years 800 to 1800, compiled by Neil Cummins. The data tracks adult age at death and identifies trends in longevity, including the impact of violent deaths from battle across different European regions.

Use Cases

• Calculating historical longevity trends using the age at death and year of death features
• Analyzing the frequency of violent deaths from battle across different centuries
• Comparing regional mortality rates between North-West Europe and other regions

Strengths

• 115,650 individual records
• 1,000-year temporal span from 800 to 1800
• Includes cause-of-death indicators for violent/battle deaths

Limitations

• Strict geographic bias toward Europe
• Class bias limited to nobility
• Survival bias as it focuses on adult age at death

Provenance

Source

Neil Cummins, ICPSR Harvested Dataverse

Time Range

800-1800

Freshness

Last updated February 2026

Geography

Europe