40% of women born in the UK this year will live to be 100

Would you want to live to 100?

There's a good chance your new baby girl will, if you live in the UK, after research has revealed 40% of girls born here, in 2013, will hit a century.

Just 13% of girls born in 1951 hit reached 100. By 2060 there will be 500,000 one hundred-year-olds living in the UK, and 60% of girls born that year will live to see their 100th birthday.

The Daily Mail also reports that, in Europe, the proportion of people over the age of 65 will be 40% by 2030.

John Appleby, chief economist at the King's Fund, said the rise in life expectancy is down to the fact that youngsters are more likely to survive childhood due to improved healthcare and education.

"Living longer is a good thing but not much fun if those extra years are lived in pain and discomfort." He said.

"How healthy humans will be in the future is an open question, but historically at least, previous gains in healthy life expectancy have more to do with reductions in morality than reductions in years lived in disability."