Editorial: A triumph of science sees the number of centenarians soar

Now that number has soared to 13,924, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), comparing census figures from 1921 and 2021.

Centenarians still represent only 0.2% of the overall population, which is a mere one person in 500. But that is misleading because it could imply that only one person in 500 reaches their 100th birthday. In fact it is a much higher than that because very old people will only ever make up a small percentage of the population, as do people aged between 80 and 90, as do people aged between 70 and 80, as indeed do people aged between 10 and 20.

The most relevant statistic therefore is the chances of reaching 100, and while only a small minority of people do live so long it has gone from lottery-like odds to something that is now relatively common.

Yesterday for example we reported on the 105th birthday of Maisie Allison in Ballymoney. In 2019 we reported on Maud Nicholl from Ballymena celebrating her 110th (thus becoming a so-called 'super centenarian').

Not only are people reaching their 100s much more than they did, overall life expectancy has soared in NI, from roughly the Biblical three-score-years-and-ten a few decades ago to, now, the early 80s.

And pensioners are also leading significantly more active, independent lives than they did before.

This increase in longevity is coming with some problems including much greater levels of dementia than in the past, and real pressures on the NHS.

But in time societies will adjust to the new dispensation. Adults having children in middle age, for example, will not seem so unusual when living into very old age becomes the norm.

This is a triumph of medicine and science.