With each passing decade there’s an increasing chance that more people in the US will live to 100 or older. In the last 30 years, the Census Bureau reports that the number of people living past 100 has increased by more than 65 percent, from 32,194 to more than 53,364 in 2010.
The proportion of centenarians in the U.S. is still relatively small, 1.73 for every 10,000 people. It’s also a slightly smaller proportion than in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Sweden and France. And, if you would like to increase your odds of living into your 100s, you might want to move to Japan, which has twice the proportion of centenarians as we do, 3.43 for every 10,000 people.
It also so happens that if you’re a woman, your odds of living into your hundreds are far greater than if you’re a man. More than eight in 10 centenarians (82.8 percent) are women. More than eight in 10 were White alone (82.5 percent).
