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More than a third of people born this year will live to be 100 years old
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Britain's National Insurance Institute has published its long-term life expectancy forecast for the UK, predicting that more than a third of people born this year will live to 100. It says: "As at all times, women will have a much higher life expectancy."
40% of girls born this year will live to 100, and less than a third of boys. Of today's 65-year-olds, 10% of men and 14% of women will live to 100.
As experts state: the number of long-livers is rapidly increasing. The number of centenarians has grown from 600 in 1961 to almost 13 thousand in 2010. By 2060 it should reach 456 thousand people.
This raises the question of reforming the healthcare system and ensuring a decent life for the elderly. Experts fear that the main financial burden will fall on the shoulders of young people, who make up a small part of society. Also, the elderly themselves often find themselves in difficult situations.
Today, many of them have to sell their homes to pay their treatment bills. The problem is that there is no maximum price limit for this group of patients. According to statistics, every tenth person pays more than £100,000 (about 4.6 million rubles). The government is going to fix the situation by setting a maximum.
Currently in Great Britain women retire at 60, and men at 65. The head of the Ministry of Finance George Osborne, recently presenting the new budget in parliament, explained that the existing pension system does not keep up with the growth rate of life expectancy. So today's youth will hardly be able to save up for a normal pension.
Many British pensioners are now forced to sell their homes to pay for care homes and treatment. The government is under pressure to take urgent action or Britain will become a country of impoverished old people.
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