How Work Will Change When Most of Us Live to 100

Careers will be longer and more varied.

by

Lynda Gratton

and

Andrew Scott

by

Lynda Gratton

and

Andrew Scott

June 27, 2016

Today in the United States there are 72,000 centenarians. Worldwide, probably 450,000. If current trends continue, then by 2050 there will be more than a million in the US alone. According to the work of demographer Professor James Vaupel and his co-researchers, 50% of babies born in the US in 2007 have a life expectancy of 104 or more. Broadly the same holds for the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Canada and for Japan 50% of 2007 babies can expect to live to a staggering 107.

Lynda Gratton is a professor of management practice at London Business School and the founder of HSM Advisory, a future-of-work research consultancy. Her most recent book is Redesigning Work: How to Transform Your Organization and Make Hybrid Work for Everyone (Penguin Business, 2022).
AS

Andrew Scott is Professor of Economics at London Business School and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University and the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He has served as an advisor on macroeconomics to a range of governments and central banks and was Non-Executive Director on the UK’s Financial Services Authority. He is the co-author, with Linda Scott, of The 100-Year Life: Living and working in an age of longevity.

How Work Will Change When Most of Us Live to 100

Partner Center

Explore HBR

HBR Store

About HBR

Manage My Account

Follow HBR