The rise in average living standards experienced by most industrialized countries:?

Question

a-has been continuous over the course of human history.
b-was more rapid before 1870 than after 1870.
c-has been more rapid since 1950 than before 1950.
d-has occurred at the same pace across all countries.
e-has resulted primarily from an increase in population worldwide.

Answer 1

What do you count as part of "average living standards"? material goods? quality of diet? lifespan?

Here is one good article on the problem:
http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf

Here is a wikipedia that contrasts the purely economic "standard of living" with the more general "quality of life":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_standard

It also raises the question of the use of "average" as opposed to median, etc.

As for the relationship between all this and industrialization:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/IndustrialRevolutionandtheStandardofLiving.html