At the beginning of this year, the Netherlands had 1,940 people aged 100 or older, around half of whom still live independently, according to new figures from the national statistics office CBS.

In the 1960s, the Netherlands had fewer than 100 people who had lived for more than 100 years.

Women are much more likely than men to live so long and the Netherlands’ oldest resident is a 110-year-old woman. Some 7% of the elderly men live with a partner, compared with just 1% of the women.