Latest generation of children will live 20 years longer than their grandparents

Research found that the continuing rise in life expectancy in the UK now means a modern toddler should live 20 years longer than their predecessor in the years prior to the Second World War.

The findings show that on average a girl born today will live to be 82 and a man 78 - an increase which demonstrates the successes of healthier lifestyles and improved medical science.

In 1930 it was expected that a boy born that year would reach the age of 58 - meaning he typically would have died in 1988. For a girl born in 1930, the average expected lifespan was just over 62 years.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that anyone born in 1930 who has survived until now will far surpass their original likely age.

Lifespan tables show a 65-year-old man can expect to live another 17 years, and a woman of the same age another 20. A man now in his late 70s can also expect to continue to live for a further nine years and a woman for more than 11. Elderly people can expect more of their longer years of life will be spent in good health, the report in the ONS journal Social Trends also said.

Explaining the 20-year increase, the report said: “One of the main reasons is the considerable decrease in infant mortality rates which were at their lowest recorded level in 2010.”
It added: “As well as living longer, men and women are staying healthy and disability free for more of their lives.”
The life expectancy tables - calculated on evidence from 2009 - follow recent evidence that the middle classes have benefited far more from better health and living standards than those on lower incomes.
The character of neighbourhoods also has an effect and people in rural areas live longer, it added.
In 1930 the infant mortality rate stood at 6.3 per cent, with more than one in 20 children dying before their first birthday. Last year that rate was down more than tenfold to less than half of one per cent - 0.45 per cent.
Today, deaths overall are at a record low. Last year was the second in a row in which fewer than 500,000 people died in England and Wales. There were 493,242 deaths, nearly 45,000 fewer than in 2000.