Thirty thousand people in France are centenarians. They – and above all they – are thirty times more numerous than in the years 1960-1975, according to INSEE data, published on Wednesday 5 April. Finally, France is the European country with the largest number of centenarians, both in absolute number but also in proportion: “In 2020, metropolitan France has 21 centenarians for every 1,000 people aged 60 in 1980, which places it in first place in Europe”adds INSEE.
- Large majority women
Women represent 86% of centenarians in France, men are only 4,300, and their number decreases rapidly once the 100e past birthday. Supercentenarians, i.e. people who are 110 or older “are almost all women”explains INSEE.
The higher life expectancy of women and their lower risk – compared to men – of dying early explain this statistic. Already among nonagenarians, women represent 73% of this category.
- Graduates are twice as likely to reach 100 as non-graduates
Becoming a centenarian is twice as common among university graduates as among people without a diploma. Thus, among women aged 70 to 75 in 1990, 7% of higher education graduates had reached the age of 100 or more, compared to 3% of those without a diploma. For men, the statistics say the same thing, but with a smaller number.
In its study, INSEE also notes that there is a greater proportion of women without a diploma who have reached the age of 100 than of qualified men, despite “low income” of these and “their working conditions in general more difficult”.
- Thirty times more centenarians in 2023 than in 1970
The number of centenarians barely exceeded 1,000 in 1970 and has continued to grow ever since. With the exception of the period 2015 to 2019, during which the number of centenarians decreased (from 24,100 to 18,500), a consequence of the birth deficit recorded during the First World War.
Since 2020, their number has increased (+15% per year on average between 2020 and 2023), reflecting the higher number of births from 1920. “This progression would have been even faster in the absence of the Covid-19 epidemic”explains the public institute, since the elderly had a higher mortality rate than other age groups during the most intense period of the pandemic.
According to INSEE projections, the number of centenarians could reach 76,000 in 2040 – i.e. 2.5 times more than today – or even 120,000 in the most favorable scenario, but their weight in the French population would be pretty stable anyway.