Number of centenarians in England and Wales grows by a fifth in decade as birth rates plunge to lowest in nearly half a century

Published: 11:33, 29 July 2026 | Updated: 11:43, 29 July 2026 The number of centenarians has surged by more than a fifth over a decade as the birth rate plunged to its lowest in nearly 50 years, figures show today. In a sign of the extent to which people are living longer, the official data found there were around 15,172 people aged over 100 in England and Wales last year. This was up from 14,635 in 2024 (3.7%) and 12,472 in 2015 (21.6%). Among famous Britons to reach the 100-year-old milestone recently was veteran broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, who became a centenarian in May. The number of people aged 105 or more increased by more than a third (34%) to 709, compared with 529 in 2024. The Office for National Statistics data also projected that there were an estimated 581,400 people aged 90 or over last year, up from 564,300 (3%) the year before and 500,000 (16.3%) in 2015. Men now make up 34.1% of the over 90 population and 18.8% of the over 100 population. For every man aged over 100, there were 4.3 women. Your browser does not support iframes. Meanwhile, the number of births plummeted to 588,000, the fewest since 1978 and an 8,000 fall compared to 2024. The number of deaths was not far off births (568,400). The official statistics highlight the extent to which England and Wales is becoming an ageing population, with adults having less children while people live for longer amid advances in medicine and living standards. The population statistics also showed the population overall grew again by 224,900 (0.4%) last year to around a record 62million, mostly driven by migration. A total of 816,500 people immigrated to England and Wales from outside the UK, down from 1,197,500 in the year to mid-2024. Meanwhile, 604,800 people emigrated from England and Wales to another country outside the UK, up from 584,900. It meant net migration was down by more than 400,000 to 211,700. However, because the difference between births and deaths was so narrow, this was the main driver of population growth. But it was the lowest rate of population increase since 2020 because of the massive fall in net migration. Nigel Henretty, of the ONS, said: ‘Migration has been the main driver of population change in England and Wales for the past quarter of a century. While that has continued to be the case, the recent fall in migration has led to the smallest population growth since the height of the pandemic. ‘London saw the first population decrease since 2021 and the population of Wales fell for the first time in a decade.’