The demography of contemporary hunter-gatherers, farmers and other subsistence populations provides an important lens for studying age patterns of survival and morbidity under non-industrial conditions and lifeways. Although high-quality evidence is sparse, a review suggests robust patterns of human longevity that contradict prior notions of ‘nasty, brutish and short’ lifespans suggested from the palaeodemographic literature. Life expectancy at birth averages about 30 years for hunter-gatherers, and 35 years across all human subsistence groups, a pattern similar to mid-eighteenth-century Europe. Despite short life expectancy, subsistence populations show a modal adult lifespan of about seven decades across a wide range of environments, diets and livelihoods. Over a third of adult life is spent post-reproductive. Infection, violence and accidents are primary causes of death. Post-contact acculturation has mostly improved survivorship, especially in early life, due to access to health care and modern amenities. Loss of land and livelihood, new infections and exploitation, however, have increased mortality and morbidity in some populations. Although the past two centuries have witnessed large gains in lifespan equality and survivorship, the potential for human longevity appears to be a species-typical universal.