As the population of the UK grows obviously we will see more people of all ages. But if you examine the age distribution, what percentage of people are now living to a grand old age?

This graph shows the percentage of the UK population that are aged 85 or over - a feat only achieved by 1 in a thousand in 1881 but more than 1 in 50 now.

Over 85s age distribution over time

I'm not a statistician but I realise a percentage can't grow forever - otherwise more than 100% of the population will be over 85 eventually! However, I think this shows that more and more people are going to be living a lot longer and eventually apart from the "new borns" everyone is going to be over a 100 years old.