Life expectancy: How long will you live?

Behind the cold columns of statistics regarding when we are likely to die lie insights into social changes, global events, and future ageing trends.

My last column looked at death in the workplace, and at the risk of sounding overly fatalistic I now want to examine how long we are likely to live. When we talk about longevity, it is usually described in terms of “life expectancy” – the average length of life – but averages can be misleading. After all, people in the UK have on average one testicle each.

For instance, the 90th Psalm declares, at least in the King James version of the Bible, that “the days of our years are three-score years and ten”, although up to recently you had to be fairly lucky to reach this biblical sell-by date. Some historical figures did manage it: Augustus Caesar conquered that barrier to reach 75, while Michelangelo hammered on to the amazing age of 88.         Read Here