80 is old? Where I'm from (Northern Europe) 80 is dead, not old. So given that you can't be old when you are already dead, old here is anywhere 60+, with 70+ being the last few years you have left (average life expetency is 76).
Unless your Northern Europe is Kaliningrad or somewhere else in Russia, 76 is the average life expectancy for men and at birth (that's in the Baltics, the rest of Northern Europe has higher life expectancy than that at birth). Life expectancy is much higher than that at 50 or 60, and also higher for women.
Generally, in the Northern and Western Europe I know, people with a "normal" life without special health problems don't seem very old at 60 or 70, and they expect to live to around 80 or more.
Even in the US which is notorious for low life expectancy among OECD nations, the average age of death (from a quick Google search) seems to be 85[0].
I admittedly made a quick google for Estonia, i.e Baltics, and it could've very well been only for men indeed. I must say however that the average age of death and average life expectancy being two different things is a bit confusing to me.
Modal age of death is usually in the 90s. Old is a subjective term. I guess people mean an age associated with frailty. People who die below 76 often die from non frailty associated diseases, and so their lives have been cut short before they got ‘old’.
Of course frailty is also subjective and relative. It’s why everyone seems old compared to their prior self, and yet equally seems young compared to your elders.
In Poland, according to official government stats, 60 year old men will, on average, die at 78 year old. 60 yo women will, on average, die at 83 year old.
Interestingly, for 30 year olds, it's average death at 73 for men and 81 for women.
