The number of people over 100 in England and Wales may have peaked, according to government data.
Estimates of the Very Olda population analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 14,850 people aged 100 or over living in England and Wales in 2023. Among these, an estimated 560 people were 105 years of age or older.
This is more than double the number of centenarians in 2002, but a decrease of 0.5% compared to 2022, when there were 14,920.
Until 2021, the post-World War I baby boom ensured significant annual increases in the number of centenarians in England and Wales: there were 10,930 in 2018 but 14,370 in 2021.
“The large post-World War I birth cohort, which was 103 years old in 2023, accounted for 9.7% of those aged 100 and over,” the report said. “As this cohort ages and decreases in size, the effect on the size of the centenarian population continues to decrease.”
The data also found that the sex ratio at the oldest ages had further reduced in 2023, with 4.5 women for every man aged 100 and over in England and Wales, compared to 4.6 in 2022.
Wales has slightly more centenarians than England, according to the data: 26 per 100,000 people, compared to 24 per 100,000 respectively.
There were 551,758 non-agenarians – people aged 90 and over – living in England and Wales. This is down from more than 600,000 in 2019, but a slight increase of 0.2% from 2022. In 2021 there was an increase of 2.1%.
There were just over twice as many women as men aged 90 and over in 2023; a gap between males and females that continues to narrow over time, from more than three times the number of females to males aged 90+ in 2002.
to newsletter promotion
Until the 1940s, centenarians were a rarity. Improved diet, lifestyle and health care, and reduced mortality – specifically deaths after age 80 – caused the number of centenarians to increase sharply from the 1950s.
The return of soldiers after World War I led to a birth peak in the latter half of 1919, leading to the rise in the number of centenarians since 2020.
