Life begins at 65!
Better lifestyles and healthcare will mean an extra 21 years’ retirement for men and another 23 for women
RETIREMENT was once seen as a time to wind down, relax and quietly enjoy one’s last few years.
But soaring life expectancy means people will soon spend at least two decades in retirement, experts at Imperial College London have calculated.
The average Briton who turns 65 in 2030 – still those have currentlya quarter in of their their earlylife to 50s look– will forward to, according to forecasts published in the Lancet medical journal.
Men who reach 65 will be expected to live to 86 while women of 65 will have a life expectancy of 88. In 2010, the latest year, for which figures are available, men aged 65 could expect to live for another 18 years and women another 21 years.
The research, which looked at 35 countries, shows that the UK is now in 12th place for male life expectancy at 65.
Experts predict life expectancy will continue to grow. Study leader Professor Majid Ezzati, from the School of Public Health at Imperial, said most people will soon live into their 90s. ‘We repeatedly hear that improvements in human lon-
gevity are about to come to an end,’ he said. ‘Many people used to believe that 90 years is the upper limit for life expectancy, but this research suggests we will break the 90-year barrier. ‘I don’t believe we’re anywhere near the upper limit of life expectancy – if there even is one.’ Experts said last night that our extended lifespans, with many more living well into old age, mean we need to take health seriously while we are younger.
The extension is thought to be down to improvements in heart, stroke and cancer medicine. But back pain, obesity, pneumonia and dementia mean many will spend a large portion of those extra years in poor health. Evidence increasingly suggests that exercising and eating well in middle age can have a dramatic impact on quality of life years later.
The Imperial team, who worked alongside the World Health Organisation, also looked at the life expectancies of babies in 2030. They predicted girls born in the UK that year will be expected to live to 85 – 21st of the 35 countries – and boys to 83, 14th of the 35.
The team predicted a girl born in South Korea in 2030 will on average live to 91 and a boy to 84. French girls, with an average of 89, and Swiss boys, nearly 84, will have the highest life expectancies in Europe. But the USA is predicted to have the lowest among high-income countries, 80 for boys and 83 for girls. The research also suggests the gap in life expectancy between women and men is closing. Professor Ezzati said: ‘Men traditionally had unhealthier lifestyles.
‘They smoked and drank more, and had more road traffic accidents and homicides. However as lifestyles become more similar between men and women, so does longevity.’
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: ‘The fact that we are living longer is to be celebrated and it is vital that we help people to age healthily.
‘An ageing society does bring with it specific requirements – for example, it means having health and social care systems which can cater for growing numbers of older people, some with multiple longterm conditions. It also means making the places where we live and all the key services from transport to banking easy to navigate.’