The number of centenarians in England and Wales (people aged 100 and over) increased 22% to 15,300 in 2024 compared to a decade earlier (2014: 12,600), according to new data from the Office for National Statistics.

The number of women continued to outnumber men when it comes to reaching 100 years of age.

For every man aged 100 and over, there were 4.4 women.

ONS data also reveals that there were 564,000 people aged 90 and or over in England and Wales in mid-2024. There were twice as many women as men aged 90 or over.

The population aged 90 years and over has increased by 2.1% since mid-2023 (from 552,000), according to the ONS data.

Rising life expectancy for men has been a large contributor, with the number of 90 years old and older men growing 33.2% since 2014.

Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said these latest figures puts further pressure on the Government review into pensions.

She said: “Increasing numbers of older people means the state pension bill continues to swell and this gives the government an ongoing financial headache. With a review into state pension age ongoing, we will see further discussion on whether the timetable for state pension age rises needs to accelerate and whether we will see a timetable put in place for a state pension age rising into the 70s.”

The Government has recently revived the Pensions Commission to look at ways to tackle the problem of Britons not saving enough for retirement. The Commission last met in 2006 and recommended automatic enrolment in workplace pensions.

Despite women being more likely to live into very old age, recent research from PensionBee found that there continues to be a consistent gender pension gap. In the first half of 2025, men contributed an average of £1,845 per quarter, while women contributed £1,347 – a 27% gap.