Written by Jodie Humphries

How would you fancy living to 100? Research has found that by controlling factors in your life, living to 100 is actually much more possible than previously thought.

In total, the US has the most centenarians with current estimates as high as 72,000, leading website The Centenarian states. In fact, if the population of centenarians continues to increase at its current rate of expansion, there could be close to one million people of 100 years of age or more by 2050 residing in the US.

Meanwhile, in the UK, while the overall numbers of centenarians are much smaller, the trend is the same. The Office of National Statistics reports around 9000 centenarians today in The UK and Wales, a 90-fold increase since 1911, and a seven percent increase from just half a decade ago in 2005. Estimates show that at the current rate of expansion, the UK’s centenarian population could reach over 40,000 by 2031. And, just as in other parts of the industrialized world, people aged over 90 are the fastest growing segment of the population in the UK.

In Japan, the number of centenarians are also extremely high, making Japan only second to the US with a current population of about 30,000 centenarians. At its current rate of expansion, Japan’s population of centenarians may rival that of the United States in sheer numbers in the years ahead. Certainly, by 2050, Japan proportionally will have the most centenarians in the world.

Danish research

New research in Denmark suggests that most babies born in rich countries this century will eventually make it to their one hundredth birthday. In fact, according to Danish experts, since the 20th century people in developed countries are living around three decades longer than in the past. Now some believe that this figure could go even higher. If improvements in health continues, “a majority of children born since the year 2000 will celebrate their hundredth birthday,” states James Vaupel, of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, in Rostock, Germany.

The estimate comes after Vaupel and colleagues in Denmark examined studies published globally between 2004 and 2005 on numerous issues related to aging. They found life expectancy is increasing steadily in most countries and in Japan, which has the world’s longest life expectancy, more than half of the country’s 80-year-old women are expected to live to 90.

Overall, centenarians are the fastest-growing demographic group across much of the developed world and here at EHM we have taken a look at factors which can influence an increase your expected lifespan, so maybe you too can reach that grand age of 100.