(London Telegraph) Collecting the state pension and bus pass at 65 has traditionally been seen as a watershed moment where middle age ends and the twilight years begin.
But new research suggests that old age now starts at 74, with middle age lasting at least nine years longer than current estimates.
Academics from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna, Austria, argue that old age should be measured not by age, but by how long people have left to live.
In the 1950s a 65-year-old in Britain could expect to live a further 15 years.