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Half of US Babies Will See 100
Upward life expectancy trend shows no signs of slowing
By Harry Kimball
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Posted Oct 2, 09 10:06 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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More than half of the children born today in wealthy developed countries will live to see their 100th birthday. New research coming out of Denmark also suggests life expectancy in general has increased dramatically as medicine and diagnosis of diseases afflicting the elderly have improved. Since the 1950s, the BBC reports, the probability that a resident of the first world will live 80 to 90 years has more than doubled.
That probability is now 37% for women in developed countries and 25% for men, and the trend shows no sign of slowing. “The linear increase in record life expectancy for more than 165 years does not suggest a looming limit to human lifespan,” the study’s leader says. “If life expectancy were approaching a limit, some deceleration of progress would probably occur.” And older people are enjoying better lives, with a whopping 30% to 40% living independently between ages 92 and 100.