New life expectancy data by the Office for National Statistics predicts that more than a quarter of girls and nearly a fifth of boys born in the UK in 2049 are expected to live to at least 100 years of age, representing a noticeable increase from life expectancy for children born in 2024.  

 

The ONS data published on Friday projects that 26.3% of girls and 18.3% of boys born in 2049 in the UK will live to at least 100 – marking a steep increase from 19.1% of girls and 12.0% of boys born in 2024.  

 

Overall, girls born in 2049 can expect to reach 92.4 years, with boys born that year expected to live to 89.6 years, an increase of 2.2 years and 2.6 years, respectively from 2024. Women aged 65 in 2024 can expect to live a further 22.7 years on average, and men a further 20.0 years. This, too, is projected to rise, to 24.6 years and 22.0 years, respectively in 2049, when the state pension age is set to be 68.  

 

The data highlights the UK’s demographic challenge and will put pressure on public finances and younger taxpayers, said David Brooks, head of policy at consultancy Broadstone. 

 

“People will spend longer in retirement, often needing to draw an income for decades, requiring both larger later-life savings and inevitably increasing the cost for the state of providing retirement benefits. This creates difficult questions for policymakers, employers and the pension industry around how retirement can be funded sustainably in the long term,” he said.  

 

As well as resulting in hard policy choices, it will also squeeze individuals having to stretch pension pots over a potentially much longer period than they thought. This growing risk of running out of money underlines the importance of long-term savings, he said, along with “realistic retirement planning and ensuring pension systems are designed to provide sustainable incomes for an increasingly longer retirement journey”. 

 

People tend to underestimate how long they will live, said Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Paying attention to our pensions will be all important,” she said. 

Morrissey also warned the government will consider how to keep the state pension sustainable. “As more of us live longer, the government will look at different ways to manage the burgeoning bill and they could choose to bring the shift to age 68 forward, or even put in place a timetable to age 69 and beyond,” she said.

The third review of the state pension age is underway and due to report soon.