The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford History of the United States)

by Richard White

During the Gilded Age, the average American lifespan at birth was shorter than at twenty because so many children died in early childhood that a person reaching twenty had on average more years to live than an average baby did at birth. Infant mortality worsened after 1880 in many cities. In Pittsburgh it rose from 17.1 percent in 1875 to 20.3 percent in 1900. Between 1850 and 1890 the chances of an American white child dying before the age of five were often between 25 percent and 30 percent, with a sharp bump upward in 1880, the figure falling to around 20 percent by 1890. Existing figures for black children indicate they died in far greater numbers than white ones in comparable situations.