Our grandchildren could live to 125

MANY of us would be delighted to live long enough to get a birthday message from the Queen when we turn 100.

But scientists now say people could reach 125 within two generations.

There have been no verified cases of individuals living beyond 122 – the age reached by Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment in 1997.

However Dutch researchers forecast that somebody could hit age 125 by the year 2070. The researchers, from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, say this is based on the soaring number of centenarians.

In Britain, the number of people past 100 is likely to grow from just over 14,500 in 2015 to 1.5million within the century.

Professor Fanny Janssen, from the University of Groningen, said: ‘The population of centenarians is increasing rapidly and while the chances of centenarians surviving to even older ages are low, with a growing population, the probability will of course increase that more of them will reach a much higher age.’

The claim – made in the journal Nature – has been challenged by US researchers who last year reported human’s life expectancy had ‘plateaued’ at 115. They claim that the chance of one human living to 125 was about one in 20,000.

Other research teams suggested that it was impossible to know if life expectancy would continue to grow.