Can love defeat death?
Health and life expectancy are affected by love, sex and marriage
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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.
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Health and life expectancy are affected by love, sex and marriage
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People who are already middle-aged could make it to 120 - by the time today's baby's get that old they'll still be young