What Work Will Be Like When We Live to 100

A woman and a man look out towards the beach while sitting on a bench in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday, April 1, 2015. The number of people in Australia aged 65 and over is expected to double by 2055. (Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg via Getty Images

There are currently about 72,000 Americans who are 100 or older. Assuming current trends continue, this number could increase to over one million by 2050. You might first read that and get really excited—i.e. “I’m going to live forever!” But then, after you consider it a bit more, it doesn’t sound so amazing. After all, most of us have watched a beloved grandparent slowed by age, and that probably happened well before 100. How will society end up coping with people living so long?

Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott set out to explore this issue for the Harvard Business Review. They view longer lives as a challenge—but also as an opportunity:

“Our view is that if many people are living for longer, and are healthier for longer, then this will result in an inevitable redesign of work and life. When people live longer, the arc of their life stretches—they are not only older for longer, but also younger for longer. There is some truth in the cliché that ’70 is the new 60′ or ’40 the new 30.’ If you age more slowly over a longer time period, then you are in some sense younger for longer.”

Employees process customer orders ahead of shipping at one of Amazon.com Inc.’s fulfillment centers in Peterborough, U.K., on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014. (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bloomberg via Getty Images

In short, you should prepare to work well beyond what you once thought of as the age of retirement:

“… our calculations suggest that if you are now in your mid 40s, then you are likely to work until your early 70s; and if you are in your early 20s, there is a real chance you will need to work until your late 70s or possibly even into your 80s. But even if people are able to economically support a retirement at 65, over 30 years of potential inactivity is detrimental to cognitive and emotional vitality. Many people may simply not want to do it.”

Quite simply, the increase in longevity will result in a radical change in how people approach their careers and lives in general. After all, in 1962, 50 percent of Americans married by age 21. By 2014, it was 29. In the years to come, there’s no reason to think it won’t move into the 30s and possibly beyond that.

To read the full article and contemplate a rapidly changing future, click here.