THE number of Scots reaching their 100th birthday has reached an all-time high.
Official figures show there were 820 centenarians living in Scotland last year.
A rarity a century ago, the number of people living for a century has steadily increased in the last decade, from 500 in 2000.
The figures, from Registrar General, also show that overwhelming majority of centenarians are women.
In 2010, women accounted for 690 of Scotland’s centenarians while 130 men had reached the milestone.
George MacKenzie, Registrar General for Scotland, said: “The number of Scottish centenarians has been steadily rising, from 570 in 2002 to 820 in 2010, an increase of 44 per cent. Around eight out of every 10 centenarians are women.
“Estimates for 2010 show a rise in the number of people aged 90 to 99, partly because the number of births during the year 1920 was at its highest level since the introduction of national registration in 1855. This was the large birth cohort after the First World War.”
