Population aged 90 and over hits new high as more men live to old age
The UK population aged 90 and over has reached a new high, driven by an increase in the number of men living to a very old age.
Some 611,719 people in the country were estimated to be 90 or over in 2023, up from 609,898 in 2022, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The figure has jumped 54% in 20 years, having stood at 397,793 in 2003.
But while the number of men living to 90 or older is continuing to rise steadily, the number of women reaching this age has levelled off in recent years and fell slightly in the latest data.
Women still account for the majority of people living to at least 90, with 408,216 females in this age group in 2023, or just over two-thirds of the total.
But this number has risen by only around one-third from 304,498 in 2003.
By contrast, the number of men aged 90 or over in 2023, 203,503, is more than double the 93,295 20 years earlier.
'The increasing number of men relative to women at older ages reflects improvements over several decades,' the ONS said.
These include changes in lifestyle, such as reductions in smoking rates for men; better working conditions for males; and healthcare improvements, such as the prevention and treatment of heart disease.
The gap between male and female life expectancy has narrowed since the early 1990s, meaning the number of men at older ages is catching up with the number of women.
'There were 2.0 women for every man aged 90 years and over in 2023, which is the lowest the sex ratio has ever been since the start of the time series in 1971,' the ONS added.
The number of women aged 90 and over in 2023, 408,216, is down from 409,709 in 2022.
Meanwhile, there were an estimated 16,140 people aged 100 or over in the UK in 2023, down very slightly from 16,200 the previous year.
The number of centenarians rose overall by 35% between 2018 and 2023.
Much of this rapid growth is a legacy of the spike in babies born in the years immediately after the end of the First World War in 1918.
This led to a jump in the number of people turning 100-years-old in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
The number of births started to drop in the early 1920s, which has resulted in a slower increase in the number of people reaching age 100 over the last couple of years.
There were 23.6 centenarians per 100,000 population in the UK in 2023, up from 13.4 per 100,000 population in 2003.
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