The key factor makes you four times more likely to live to be a hundred years old, according to new official data
If you want to reach your 100th birthday and receive a telegram from the King, one biological difference may prove to be the key to your success.
According to official figures, women today are more than four times as likely to live to be a centenarian as men.
More than 12,000 women in England and Wales will reach this milestone by 2023.
By contrast, just over 2,700 men hit 100 in the two countries, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
It means the number of centenarians has more than doubled since 2002, with 14,850 last year.
At the age of 115, Ethel Caterham, from Surrey, has become the oldest living person in Britain following the death of 112-year-old Mollie Walker on January 22, 2022
Statisticians say this overall increase is due to improvements in death rates dating back decades.
But the figure also marks a slight decrease (0.5 percent) on 2022, when 14,920 adults in England and Wales reached the milestone age.
It is also the first time in six years that the total number of people has fallen above 100. In 2018, this was attributed to the low number of births during the First World War.
Despite the slowdown, the figures showed there were more people aged 103 in the two countries than ever before (1,440).
By country, for every 100,000 people in Wales, there were 26 people who reached the centenary milestone.
In England the figure was 24 people per 100,000.
There were also 551,760 non-peers, people over the age of 90, living across the two countries in 2023 – the highest number ever recorded.
Women were also twice as likely (383,250) to reach this milestone than men (183,510).
Stephen Lowe, group communications director at pensions specialist Just Group, said: ‘Our centenarian population has increased significantly since the millennium.
‘Even though the number of centenarians is stabilizing as the impact of the high birth rate after the First World War diminishes, it still illustrates that there are a number of demographic challenges that our society must address to care for an aging population.
‘The clear and significant imbalance between female and male centenarians highlights some of the specific challenges women are likely to face in later life.
“Even if we are young today, most of us hope to be lucky enough to live a long life.
‘The combined factors of longer life expectancy and lower personal savings make women more vulnerable to poverty later in life.’
Global average life expectancy is expected to rise to approximately 78.1 years by 2050. Pictured is Ethel Caterham celebrating her 115th birthday in August
Earlier this year, research suggested that life expectancy around the world will increase by almost five years by 2050, with the average man predicted to live to be 76 and women to live past 80.
Global average life expectancy is expected to increase to approximately 78.1 years in 2050, an increase of 4.5 years. The Lancet Public Health study also found.
Experts said at the time that the trend was largely driven by public health measures that both prevented and improved survival rates from diseases such as cardiovascular disease, nutritional diseases and infections in mothers and newborns.
Commentators also said the numbers provide a “tremendous opportunity” to “stay ahead of rising metabolic and nutritional risk factors” such as high blood pressure and BMI.
The world’s oldest living person is now Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908 and is 116 years old.
At 115, Ethel Caterham, from Surrey, has become the oldest living person in Britain following the death of 112-year-old Mollie Walker on January 22, 2022.
The oldest living person in the world is now the Japanese Tomiko Itooka, born on May 23, 1908 and aged 116
The title of the oldest person to ever live belongs to France’s Jeanne Louise Calment, whose life spanned 122 years and 164 days.
Mrs Caterham, who died in 1997, attributed her longevity to ‘never arguing with anyone, I listen and I do what I like’.
Experts who have studied centenarians agree.
Physical activity, faith, love, camaraderie and a sense of purpose are the backbone of so-called ‘Blue Zones’, or areas of the world where people typically live to be 100 years or older.
Maintaining an active lifestyle, even just walking around town every day, has been shown to extend lifespan.
Companionship has been shown to have a similarly positive effect on a person’s lifespan, with studies consistently showing that loneliness is toxic.