Life in America (1905) Trivia Quiz

Answer: 47 years

In the next 100 years, the life expectancy had increased by 30 years. Medical advances, healthier lifestyles, and proper eating have given Americans (and people throughout the world) much longer, healthier lives.

Answer: 4 cents

It's hard to believe that anything could cost 4 cents/pound. A person could have bought a ton of sugar for only $80 back then. However, 100 years later one pound of sugar costs 19 cents, so you could still buy a ton of sugar for the bargain price of just $380. In 1974, a pound of sugar in America went for an all-time high of 61 cents per pound.

Answer: 14%

Only 1 in 7 homes in America had a bathtub (or shower) in 1905. Nowodays over 99% of homes in the U.S. have bathtubs/showers. The shower was invented in London, England in 1767 and was powered by a hand pump.

Answer: 45

There were only 45 states in the USA in 1905. Oklahoma (November 16, 1907), New Mexico (January 6, 1912), Arizona (February 14,1912), Alaska (January 3, 1959), and Hawaii (August 21,1959) had not yet achieved statehood.

Answer: 8,000

Today Americans have registered approximately 287 million motor vehicles. In 1905, the Model-T was still 3 years away from being manufactured.

Answer: $800-$1,000

Can you say inflation? A century later the average American earned $40,000 pa.

Answer: 8%

Americans owned over 300 million cell phones and another 100 million landlines a century later, more than 1 phone per person. The National Safety Council estimates that around 1.5 million car accidents occur each year as a result of drivers being distracted by cell phone usage. That wasn't even imaginable in 1905.

Answer: egg yolks

Egg yolks are still used on occasion to treat damaged hair. However, modern shampoos consist mostly of surfactants, foaming agents, conditioners, thickeners, opacifiers, sequestering agents, preservatives, and special additives. That almost makes egg yolks sound like a good idea. Not so with fish slime or urine.

Answer: 95%

It is highly unlikely that any of our ancestors born in 1905 were born anywhere other than in their home. A century later between 1% and 2% of women in the USA use home-birthing as their choice instead of the hospital.

Answer: 230

In 1905, there were 84 million Americans and 230 reported murders, or one murder per 365,000 people. A century later there were over 300 million people and around 21,500 reported murders, or approximately one murder per 15,500 people. The main causes for this spike is thought to be poverty, civil unrest, domestic violence, and ease of obtaining illegal guns.