The rise and fall of Britain’s Golden Cohort: how the remarkable generation of 1925–1934 had their lives cut short by austerity

Abstract

The British born between 1925 and 1934 experienced exceptional improvements in their annual mortality; earning them the title ‘the Golden Cohort’. They were the goldilocks generation; almost all too young to fight in WWII, but the right age to benefit from food rationing; too old to be hit by 1980s youth unemployment, and the right age to benefit from increased health and social care spending of the late 1990s and early 2000s. This group has befuddled demographers for many years, and as recently as 2014 it was predicted that their golden luck would continue. However, using the latest data from the Human Mortality Database, we show how the Golden Cohort’s luck changed in 2012 when their outstanding health record was reversed, cutting short most of their remarkable lives. This change coincides with the introduction of austerity in 2010, consistent with the evidence on the harms of austerity in Britain.