Life - Articles - Statistics on the very old including centenarians

 “For previous generations, reaching age 90 was an unusual feat but today there are over 500,000 people across England and Wales who’ve hit this milestone. The fact more people are living very long lives is a remarkable feature of modern life, but is one that comes with its own challenges and requires us to think differently about how we organise our lives and society as a whole.

 “In our ageing society the affordability of the state pension is a constant point of discussion and the government has kicked off a review of state pension age. While more people are living to 90 and beyond, this growth in the number of very old people only provides a very partial picture. Life expectancy varies dramatically across the country and the uneven nature of increases needs to be taken into account as part of this process.

 "For individuals, longer lives provide the opportunity to rethink the traditional life phases of education, work and retirement and take a more flexible approach. People’s ability to do so however rests on having sufficient savings in place to enjoy what could be a lengthy retirement. The new Pensions Commission provides an opportunity to address the situation whereby 17 million people are currently under-saving and set out a roadmap towards a gradual increase in savings rates. Similarly, many people are leaving the workforce early, often due a lack of flexible working opportunities and there’s a real opportunity both for employers and employees to extend their working lives with the right incentives in place.”