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A recent article published in the British Medical Journal website has predicted that due to the increase in life expectancy, almost 40 percent of baby girls born this year may live to be 100. This number is supposed to increase to 60 percent for 2060 baby girls.

The author of the article is John Appleby, chief economist at the Kings Fund. He found that 13 percent of girls born in 1951 lived to be 100 years old. He also observed that the percentage of children dying under the age of five years has decreased by a huge 60 percent since the year 1970. To have a longer life the first five years of children are very crucial.

The life expectancy of an individual depends on the gender too. A study in U.K has predicted the life expectancy of a man to be 80 years and that of a woman to be 68.6 years on an average, leaving a wide gap of 11.4 years.

However, whenever calculating the life expectancy, only the number of deaths occurring less in a year is calculated, which doesn't take into account an individuals' health. So longevity is in no way reflective of the quality of life a person nearing 100 years will lead. Since the 1990s, there has been a 4.6 percent rise in the life expectancy of women while their health standards have only improved by a mere three percent.