Pensions fear over age increase

People are living increasingly long lives and reaching 100 will soon be "commonplace", according to new research.

Experts say there appears to be no natural limit for ageing. While there is no prospect of immortality, the trend toward longevity looks set to continue.

While welcomed by individuals, this may pose difficulties for western European governments, most of which have drastically underestimated how long their populations are likely to live and may find health, welfare and pension systems strained.

Worldwide, Japanese women live the longest lives, on average reaching 84.6. British men live to an average 75, with British women reaching an average 80. Jim Oeppen, research associate at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, said: "One of the assumptions is that life expectancy will rise a bit and then reach a ceiling it cannot go through. But it hasn't proved to be the case.

"The Government thinks we're only going to catch up with Japan's present position in 25 years' time. That seems pessimistic to me. We have to strongly consider that current forecasts of the elderly are actually too low.

"Not only will the numbers be greater, but there will be more at the older end of the scale."

Professor Alan Walker, director of the Economic and Social Research Council's growing old programme, agreed: "Policy makers are now just beginning to recognise the potential significance of increased life expectancy.

"It's not clear to me that the British policy-making process has fully adapted to this sort of finding, and it has to."

The trend has alarmed the insurance industry. Today AXA said millions are failing to save enough for retirement and the official pension age should rise to 70, to make more people priori-tise saving in order to retire at 65.

The typical British male's lifespan was only 48 in 1901, while the female's was 49. Scientists have long advised governments that the astonishing increases in life expectancy over the past century will not continue.

However, average lifespan around the world is double what it was 200 years ago. It is now about 65 for men and 70 for women.

?Having sons can shorten a woman's life expectancy by an average 34 weeks per child, new research from Finland shows. Giving birth to daughters had no significant effect on lifespan.