People alive today could reach 140, scientists claim.
Many experts had long suspected that human lifespan had reached its limit, and that no one would beat the record held by Jeanne Calment, a chain-smoking French woman who died at the age of 122.
But a new study has concluded that we’re still “far away” from a maximum — if there is one at all.
And there’s even a 50/50 chance that someone born in the UK in 1940 will reach the impressive age of 125.
That would mean that an octogenarian today is still alive in 2065.
Jeanne Calment, pictured with her Guinness World Record
Researchers at the University of Georgia analyzed the lifespans of people in the UK born as early as 1880 to find out what might be in the future.
Their projections show that men born in 1970 may be able to live to the age of 141, and the oldest women born in 1970 may live to be 131.
But these people are still so young that the authors say they have “no confidence” in these estimates, warning that they may be inaccurate because they rely on certain statistical assumptions.
They are much more confident that a man born in 1940 can reach his 125th birthday, and a woman born in the same year can reach the age of 124-and-a-half.
These estimates have a 50/50 probability.
The world’s oldest person to date is said to have been Mrs. Calment, who is said to have lived to be 122 years and 164 days old, although some experts are skeptical about this.
For 25 years, no one else in the world has reached that age.
The study looks at longevity in 19 different countries to try to understand whether aging is being compressed or delayed.
The Office for National Statistics predicts that the life expectancy of men born in 2070 in the UK will average 85 years, while women will be close to 88 when they die
Compression ensures that more people reach a beautiful old age, such as ninety.
Delay means that the age at which people can live is getting older.
The results, published in the journal PLOS One, suggest that the age at which people die will rise dramatically in the coming decades.
In Sweden, which has the most years of data, the maximum age a person could reach remained virtually the same for men born in 1900, compared to those born in 1780 – four generations earlier.
But the rise of modern medicine after WWII and better nutrition and political stability, among other factors, may have contributed to the dramatic increase in longevity that has been observed so far and is expected to continue.
The authors say the oldest among people born between 1910 and 1950 can regularly live to be 120 or older.
Dr. David McCarthy, who led the study from the University of Georgia, said: ‘As these cohorts mature into old age over the next few decades, longevity records could increase significantly.
“Our results confirm previous work suggesting that if there is a maximum limit to human lifespan, we are not yet approaching it.”
Charlotte Hughes, who was born in August 1877 and died in March 1993, is the longest living person ever documented in the UK, aged 115 years and 228 days.
She credited cups of tea for her longevity and was the oldest person to fly, at age 115 in 1992, when she took her seat on the Concorde.
She also had the longest running bank account, held open for over a century.