Babies born in Britain can look to a long life

BABIES born in Britain in 2015 have the 20th highest life expectancy in the world.

Figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) from 2015 suggest that the average baby born in Britain can expect to live for 81.2 years.

The UK comes in behind countries including Singapore, Australia, Israel, Malta and Ireland.

The 2015 research shows that babies born in Japan could expect to live the longest with an average life span predicted to be 83.7 years.

Britain performed better than other Western nations including the United States where the average baby born in 2015 could expect to live 79.3 years and Germany where the average life expectancy is 81.

Sierra Leone takes the bottom spot on the list - babies born in the West African nation can only expect to live to 50.1 years.

A recent study has predicted that South Koreans could have the highest life expectancy in the world by 2030.

The research, published in The Lancet and funded by the UK Medical Research Council, predicted a baby girl born in South Korea in 2030 will expect to live until she is 90.8 years old, and a boy 84.1.

But the rising trend is not set to continue forever, according to experts.

Another team of experts estimated that humans are unlikely ever to live beyond the age of 125.

Their study, published in the journal Nature, examined survival data dating back to 1900 from more than 40 countries.

The researchers calculated that 125 was likely to be the absolute limit of human lifespan due to genetic factors.