Life expectancy improvement grinds to a halt, but how will it affect retirement?

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the UK saw no improvements to life expectancy between 2015 and 2017, despite the number of people aged 90 or over hitting a record high.

The new data shows that the average life expectancy at birth remained unchanged at 79.2 years for men and 82.9 years for women last year – making it the lowest period for life expectancy improvement since records began in 1980.

Additional data from ONS also showed that there were 579,776 people aged 90 or older living in the UK, including some 14,430 centenarians.

ONS Centre for Ageing and Demography statistician, Ngaire Coombs, said the number of centenarians is likely to increase again from 2019 in line with historic birth patterns.

Despite this stagnation in life expectancy many financial experts are still recommending that savers prepare for a 100-year life and put away more, earlier in their life, to ensure they can fund both their early retirement and also potential care costs later in life.

Links: ONS – Life Expectancies