Life expectancy
In 2002, life expectancy at birth for females born in UK was 81 years, compared with 76 years for males. This contrasts with 49 and 45 years respectively at the turn of the last century in 1901 (www.statistics.gov.uk, source: Government Actuary's Department for expectation of life data).
UK Life expectancy at age 65 (the mean number of years still to be lived by a person who has reached the age of 65, if subjected throughout the rest of their life to the current morality conditions). Life expectancy for females in 2002 was 19.1 years at age 65, compared with 18.1 in 1992. Life expectancy for males in 2002 was 16.1 years at age 65, compared to 14.3 years in 1992. (epp.eurostat.eu, source: Eurostat).
Current UK Life Expectancy
(source: www.statistics.gov.uk)
Current life expectancy for women aged 65 is 84.6, compared to 81.9 for men. Projections for 2025 for life expectance at 65 are 87.5 for women and 85.1 for men.
Current life expectancy figures at birth are 81.1 for women and 76.9 for men.Projections for 2025 for life expectancy at birth are 84.4 for women and 80.7 for men.
EU Labour Force Survey 2005
The EU Labour Force Survey 2005 gives results derived from 380.3 million people aged 15 and more living in private households in the 25 member states of the EU.
The employment rate of older people (55 to 64 years old) was 42.5% in 2005, up by 5.9 percentage points since 2000 (source: Eurostat).
UK population aged 55-64 was 6 973 000 in 2005, this consists of 3 425 000 men and 3 547 000 women. This is out of a total UK population of 58 421 000. (source: Eurostat).
Current UK Population
Updated April 2006 (source: www.statistics.gov.uk)
- Over 20 million of the population are aged 50 years and over.
- More than a million people are aged 85 or over.
- More than 11 million are over retirement age (65 for men and 60 for women). This is 18.5% of the total UK population.
- Women over 90 outnumber men by about three to one.
- Between 2003 and 2004, the over 80s accounted for over 10% of the increase in the total population.
- The biggest contribution to this increase was amongst men in their 80s and women in their 90s.
UK Projected Population
(source: www.statistics.gov.uk)
- The number of people aged 65 years and over is expected to rise by nearly 60% in the next 25 years.
- from 9.6 million in 2005 to over 15 million in 2031.
- The percentage of the total population who are over 65 is predicted to rise from 16% to nearly 20% in 2031 and 26.6% in 2071. - By 2011, the mean age of the UK population will exceed 40 for the first time.
- By about 2017/18, there will be more people over 40 than below 40.
Chart showing correlation between age and time taken to become re-employed following redundancy
(source: Age Positive)
Department for Work and Pensions statistics for England reveal that Liverpool, Hackney, Camden, Manchester, Newcastle and Luton have some of the lowest employment rates for older workers aged between 50 and 69. For example, despite an older population of 82,000 in Liverpool, only 36.6% of these people are in employment. Slough employs the highest proportion of older workers with an employment rate of 73.9%, and Hartlepool the least at 31.8%.
The other top locations which have the highest percentage of people aged 50-69 in employment include West Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Rutland, Swindon and Reading.
Age and Employment
(source: Age Concern)
In 2005 over 6.2 million people aged between 50 and the State Pension Age were in employment. The employment rate for men between the ages of 50 and 64 is 72.4% and for women between the ages of 50 and 59 is 68.4%. This compares to an employment rate for all people of working age of 74.6%. (Source: Department for Work and Pensions).
In Spring 2005, 8.9% of men aged 65 and over and 10.4% of women aged 60 and over were still in employment.
In 2003, 40% of households with 2 adults, 1 or both aged 60 or over, and 11% of single person households aged 60 or over owned a home computer.
In 2003, 32% of households with 2 adults, 1 or both aged 60 or over, and 9% of single person households aged 60 or over, had access to the internet at home. (source: general household survey: results for 2003).
In 2005, 17% of people aged 65-74, and 10% of people aged 75 and over, took part in some sort of adult learning (source: NIACE survey on adult participation in learning 2005).