ABSTRACT
In 1990 57.2 million lived in the United Kingdom. It was the third most populous country after Germany and Italy. Whereas the population of Britain had quadrupled in the nineteenth century the increase in the twentieth century to date has been less than 50 per cent. Life expectancy within the British Isles differed not very dramatically from the rest of Western Europe: at 78.6 years for females (1991) it was slightly better than Germany and slightly worse than France. Males, whilst having only 73.2 years to look forward to, had at least the consolation of knowing that they were slightly better off than French and German males. The rise in life expectation is probably the most significant change of the twentieth century. As pointed out in chapter 5 it was a mere 48 years for men in 1901 – almost identical to life expectation in Tanzania in 1985. In consequence of this change the age structure of the 1990s is very different. Over 20 per cent of the population is now over sixty compared to a mere 8 per cent in 1901. Those over eighty are now significantly increasing with considerable implications for health expenditure.
