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1905 - Increase in the life expectancy

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At the turn of the 20th century the new water services in the major towns and cities contribute towards an increase in life expectancy.

In 1978 the Cambridge researchers, S.H. Preston and E. van de Walle, publish a study on the increase in life expectancy of French women from 1816 to 1905 in the three largest cities (Paris, Lyons, Marseilles). This study shows that this is mainly due to the arrival of water treatment and sanitation systems.

Life expectancy of French women born between 1816 and 1905.

Source: "Urban French Mortality in the Ninetheen Century". S.H. Preston, in Population Studies (July 1978) 32, 2, 275-299.

Significant improvements are first felt in Lyons, where Compagnie Générale des Eaux was founded in 1853.

Since 1855 the availability of abundant filtered and purified water contributes to a revolution in hygiene.

In 1902, Paris is justly said to be "the cleanest city in the world " due in part to the doubling of its sanitation system between 1870 and 1902.

By 1903, almost 50 years after the creation of Générale des Eaux, the life expectancy of women in Lyons has reached the same level as that of women living in the countryside.