Woody Allan once observed that he didn’t like the idea of getting old until he thought of the alternative. For those who don’t like the alternative, there is good news. According to a recent report from the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, life expectancy in the UK is increasing at the rate of about two years for each decade that passes. Hang around long enough and you’ll live for ever. These trends are almost certainly going to continue. The dramatic decline in mortality from cardiovascular disease will be sustained as the identification and treatment of people with risk factors becomes more comprehensive and effective (in the UK, deaths from coronary heart disease below 65 have fallen by nearly 50% in the last decade).

These cheerful statistics have been greeted by some with cries of woe. They translate ‘the ageing population’ into more people living restricted and miserable lives due to chronic and disabling diseases. In fact this is not how things are turning out: despite large increases in life span, the length of the period of illness before death is remaining steady, and the proportion of life spent ill is declining. What is more, if present progress in postponing disabling disease is maintained, we might reasonably anticipate a ‘compression of morbidity’, in which the health span approximates ever more closely to the life span.