By Economic Times Editor: In 1841 the average newborn girl in Britain was not expected to see her 43rd birthday. Thankfully times have changed and so have life expectancies in the 170 years since the UK’s first lifetable was constructed and there’s good reason to think about the fact you’ll probably reach an older age than you think.

The information contained in the Decennial Life Tables release, produced every 10 years, provides a fascinating insight into those changes, spanning seventeen decades.

The low life expectancies of the 19th century can be explained by the higher number of infant deaths. Survival past the first year of life was historically a predominant factor in life expectancies and once a child had reached five years of age, he or she was much more likely to reach a greater age.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, there’s something else about life expectancy we should all consider – and that is – that we are likely to live longer than we might think.

There are around 600 million people over the age of 60 across the globe – this is about 8.5 per cent of the global population. And astonishingly, this figure is expected to double by 2025, just two years away, according to the United Nations.

When I was born in 1960, my life expectancy at the time was 67. By the time I was a teenager, most people died within a decade of retiring, and middle-aged people were already looking tired and old by the time they were 40. By the time I reached the grand age of 50, my life expectancy was now 78. And a decade later, it is now officially 81.2 years. However, on this basis, for every four and a half years I keep going – theoretically, I get to live another year. So by the time I’m 80 years old, I should expect to live to 87. And if I get to 87, I should just about get to 88. However, if I get to 85 in the first place – statistically, I get to live even longer because I move out of the category of ‘average’ and join a growing band of ‘oldies’ who reach 90.8 years.

For instance – the Office for National Statistics confirms a number of little gems that we should all be aware of.

 

• There were more than half a million people aged 90 and over living in the UK in 2014, almost triple the number thirty years earlier.
• For every 100 people aged 90 and over in 2014, 29 were male, and 71 were female
• The number of centenarians (people aged 100 and over) living in the UK rose by 72% over the last decade to 14,450 in 2014.
• Male life expectancy has increased from 70.8 in 1980-82 to 79.1 in 2012-14. Female life expectancy has increased from 76.8 to 82.8 during the same period.
• The most common age of death was 86 years for men and 89 years for women. This is higher than the current average life expectancy at birth.
• Men aged 85 in 2012-14 could expect to live to 90.8, whereas women could expect to live to 91.8.
• Three in 10 of those aged 80 and over reported being lonely.
• A third of those over 80 reported very high levels of life satisfaction in 2014 to 2015.
• Around 1 in 10 (11%) of those aged 75 and over reported having no close friends in 2011 to 2012.

 

The league table of centenarians places Britain at a reasonable 13th position with 21.5 people per 100,000 population. The top slots are held by Japan, South Korea and, much to my surprise Barbados. In Europe – Portugal, France, Italy and Spain are ahead of us Brits in 4th, 6th, 7th and 12th position respectively.

The point is – you’d better prepare for a longer life and older age than you might have first thought.