The number of people in France living beyond 110 years is growing fast, the national demographic studies institute said Wednesday, with women dominating the supercentenarian contest.
The phenomenon was unheard of in France until the late 1980s, but in 2022 the authorities recorded 39 cases of people dying aged 110 or older, the INED institute said in a report.
Centenarians, meanwhile, have seen a "spectacular" rise in numbers, INED said, growing from about 1,000 in 1970 to 8,000 in 2000 and 31,000 at the start of this year.
On current trends, 200,000 people in France will be 100 or older by 2070, it said.
"We're seeing a spectacular rise of very old people," France Mesle, one of the report's authors, told AFP, although she added that their number was still "negligible" in demographic terms. France's overall population is around 68 million, with more than 20 per cent aged 65 or older.
The statistics are consistent with an earlier finding showing that the probability of reaching 100 or more is higher in France than in 15 other European countries.
