Britain's babies can expect a longer life...but it's not such good news for pensioners

New statistics reveal newborn babies have an increased life expectancy
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Ross Lydall @RossLydall27 September 2017

Life expectancy has increased slightly for Britain’s newborns but the rate of improvement has slowed for pensioners, it was revealed today.

The Office for National Statistics said a baby boy could expect to live for 79.2 years and a girl 82.9 years if mortality rates remained the same throughout their lives.

This is an increase of 0.1 years for both sexes on last year and a “very slight increase” on UK figures that had been flatlining since 2012.

However there has been no increase in Scotland, where boys are expected to live 2.1 years less, and girls 1.7 years less, because of higher levels of heart disease and smoking and alcohol and drug abuse.

The ONS said that across the UK the rate of increase in life expectancy at birth had more than halved for both sexes between 2010-12 and 2014-16.

This appears to back up research by University College London expert Sir Michael Marmot earlier this summer, which said that life expectancy rates were grinding to a halt after more than a century.

Men aged 62 have an average of 18.5 years more to live meaning they can expect to live to 83.5 
UIG via Getty Images

The ONS said: “Part of the reason for this could be that some of the factors that have historically driven life expectancy improvements, such as reductions in smoking and circulatory disease, may largely have been realised.”

Men aged 65 have an average of 18.5 years more to live, while women have 20.9 years, meaning they can expect to live to 83.5 and 85.9 respectively.

Mortality rates had been improving due to better medical treatments for cancer and a reduction in cardiovascular diseases due to the decline in smoking, but this slowed last year.

Sophie Sanders from the ONS said: “The rate of increase in life expectancy in the UK has slowed in recent years. In 2014 to 2016, improvements in life expectancy were higher than in 2013 to 2015 although they remained very slight.”

The number of people living into very old age has “largely played out”, with modest increases in the number of people in their nineties and aged 100 and above.

There were an estimated 14,910 centenarians in the UK in 2016, up 340 on 2015, while those aged 90 or older totalled 571,245, which was 14,975 more than last year.

Ngaire Coombs, from the ONS demographic analysis unit, said: “The population aged 90 and over grew rapidly in recent years, but this was largely driven by people who were born during the post-First World War baby boom... people aged 90 plus still make up less than 1% of the total UK population.”

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