When it comes to government statistics, simple titles are important. So today's numbers were clearly labelled 'Estimates of the Very Old' - and by 'very' they mean people aged 90 all the way up to the 105+ year-olds. How many old (old) people are there and which country has the most?

12,320 birthday card holders

In 2012 there were almost half a million people aged 90+ living in England and Wales. They might only represent about 1% of the total population, but given that the number has increased 33% since 2002, they're likely to become a bigger part of Britain.

But a lot of people pass away between their 90th and 100th birthdays - the totals plummet from 453,000 people aged 90-99 to just 12,320 aged 100+. That's still an awful lot of Christmas cards - on average 14 cards need to be written every day which sounds like a dreadfully dull duty for one Queen.

610 people who have lived for more than 105 years

The 105+ age bracket is a tiny one and it's one for the women - less than 1 in 10 people in this demographic are men.

Those numbers have almost doubled in a decade - from 320 people in 2002 to 610 in 2012. Back then, there were only 20 men who lived past 105 compared to 60 now.

Old men catching up with old women

But that might change. In 2002, for every man aged over 100, there were 8 women his age - that's now fallen to 6 female centenarians for every male one.

Japan's elderly are running ahead

With 1,197 people aged over 90 for every 100,000 citizens, Japan has by far the world's highest concentration of old people. England and Wales beat Norway to 5th place, since residents have a 0.8 in a 100 chance of making it past 90.

Although Africa is the least aged region of the world, there's more to this data than life expectancies and money. United States, Australia and New Zealand all rank behind Spain and Italy, despite having more wealth per citizen.

Why is there no data for 2013?

The numbers only go up to 2012 because of a slightly grim counting method - the government use death data to work out how many of the 'very old' are likely to still be alive.

Does the growing number of 105+ year-olds show we're living happier, healthier lives? Share your views below

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