Marvin OnumonuA quarter of girls (24.7%) born in 2047 in the UK are projected to live to at least 100 years old, according to life expectancy figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The ONS projected that boys born in the UK in 2023 can expect to live to 86.7 years on average, and girls to 90.0 years.
By 2047, this is projected to reach 89.3 years for boys and 92.2 years for girls.
Approximately 17.3% of boys born in 2047 in the UK are projected to live to at least 100 years old.
Stephen Lowe, group communications director at retirement specialist Just Group, said: “It’s important not to fixate on average life expectancy because it doesn’t tell you what is likely to happen at an individual level.
“Someone reaching 65 this year is as just as likely to live two full decades or more as they are to die early in retirement.”
Lowe added: “That means having financial plans in place for all the ‘what ifs’ – that you die early, that you live to around your life expectancy, or that you live longer than average.
“A combination of retirement solutions including both investments and Guaranteed Income for Life solutions can help cover all the bases, giving retirees the peace of mind to spend their pension money today knowing it won’t run out in the future.”
Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The prospect of living to 100 may feel out of reach for many but it’s something a growing number will have to get to grips with.
“According to the latest projections almost a quarter of girls and over 17% of boys born in 2047 will live until at least 100 years of age.”
She also said that boosting private pension provision becomes ever more important, especially considering a boy born in 2023 can expect to live on average to 86.7 while a girl can expect to see her 90th birthday.
Morrissey noted that millions of people need to consider how they’ll fund more than 20 years of retirement.
She added: “The figures also show the enormous pressure that the state pension is under.
“The age at which it is first paid is on the rise, but with more of us expected to live into our nineties and beyond, it will become increasingly expensive.
“State pension age could rise further, but the reality is that while we may live into our nineties our capacity to keep working in many cases diminishes in our early 60s.
“Raising state pension age would mean there is a gap of potentially several years between someone needing to finish work and collecting their state pension.”
Regarding the government review, Morrissey suggested that one potential approach is to increase auto-enrolment minimum contributions.
She added that the role of the employer could also be looked at more closely to see if they can be incentivised to increase their own contributions, potentially by increasing their contributions for those employees who are able to increase theirs.
She recommended using pension calculators as a great place to start, and if a calculator reveals a shortfall, to examine everything from contributions to investment strategy and retirement plans to find a way to close the gap.
She said: “It’s an ongoing headache that government needs to get to grips with and should form an important part of the forthcoming work on adequacy in the Pension Review.
“Giving people certainty as to what they are going to get and when means they can make long-term plans based on a firm foundation.”
