The world is living longer

Growing life expectancy and its ramifications
February 20, 2013

 



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Prospect’s question, of how you would spend a 100-year life, is prompted by the steady rise in life expectancy across much of the world, due to advances in medicine and diet.

In Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics, a third of babies born last year will live to 100, and more than 95,000 people now aged 65 will celebrate their centenary. As the charts below show, the last century has been marked by a steady rise in global life expectancy—the sharp dip in the early 20th century was caused by the Spanish flu pandemic in the aftermath of the First World War.

Governments are struggling to find an answer to those challenges.