The number of people aged 100 or over has doubled in the last 20 years while the number of 90-year-olds is steadily climbing, according to newly-published official government figures.

Increasing life expectancy raises pension challenges for the government and the industry, experts warned.

The figures published by the ONS today show that in 2023, there were an estimated 16,140 centenarians in the UK in 2023. That is more than double the number of in 2003, but similar to 2022 when there were 16,200.

The estimated population aged 90 years and over was 611,719. That was an increase of 0.3% from 2022, compared with a 2% increase between 2021 and 2022.

Steve Smallwood, ONS denographer, said: “The 90 years and over population continues to grow. This is largely due to increases in the number of men aged 90 years and over, as growth in the number of women has slowed.” 

While there were still many more female than male centenarians, the number of male centenarians has been increasing at a faster rate than females over the last decade, with the percentage of male centenarians almost doubling from 10.4% in 2003 (8.6 women to every man) to 18.3% in 2023 (4.5 women to every man).

The data showed that life expectancy at birth in the UK in 2021 to 2023 was 78.8 years for boys and 82.8 years for girls.

Life expectancy at age 65 years was 18.5 years for men and 21 years for women.

Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The great news is that many of can look forward to living a long life. However, it does point to the challenges that people and governments face in making sure they have enough money to see them through retirement.”

Mike Ambery, retirement savings director at Standard Life, said: “While longer lifespans bring great opportunities, there are also challenges, with 300 months between your 65th and 90th birthday, highlighting the scale of the financial challenge facing those who need to make their money last over multiple decades.

“Retirement planning must evolve to reflect the reality that someone could need their savings to last 25 years or longer.”

Of the four countries of the UK, Wales had the highest proportion of centenarians in their population, at 25.7 per 100,000.

The 10 highest local area male life expectancies at birth were all located in the south of England, while the 10 lowest were in Scotland, the north of England and Wales.

The figures revealed a decade gap in average male life expectancy between the lowest local area in England (Blackpool, Lancashire – average life expectancy at birth 73.1 years) and the highest (Hart, Hampshire – average life expectancy at birth 83.4 years).

Tom Selby, director of public policy at AJ Bell, said: “The huge differences in average life expectancy between regions presents a colossal challenge to a government which, at some point, will need to address the rapidly mounting cost of state pensions to the Exchequer.”