I’m one of life’s optimists. When I think about living to be 100 years old, I picture a birthday party where I am surrounded by my devoted descendants, perhaps followed by a commercial space flight as a celebratory treat. But I’m in the minority here. A lot of people would rather be dead. In a recent UK poll by Ipsos, only 35 per cent of people said they wanted to become centenarians.

Men were keener on the idea than women (43 per cent to 28 per cent) — a shame really, since women are more likely than men to achieve it. Age is a factor too: older people are less likely to want to live to 100 than younger ones, perhaps because they have already had a taste of poor health, or have gone through the experience of caring for elderly parents who suffered in their later years. In the poll, fewer than one in five people thought they would have a good quality of life if they reached 100.

We all know that life expectancy has risen globally over the last century thanks to advances in healthcare and medicine as well as improvements in education and living standards. In the UK in 2020, the number of centenarians reached more than 15,000, up almost a fifth on the year before. But — as is clear by how many don’t want to live to be 100 — “healthy life expectancy” is probably a better measure of what people actually want.