Suffolk has been revealed as one of the best counties to reach the age of 100, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

The most recent census in 2021 revealed that the number of centenarians (those aged 100 and over) has more than doubled in England and Wales in the last 20 years.

There were 15,120 centenarians in the country in 2022, up from 6,920 in 2002, a study found.

While the three counties with the highest proportion of centenarians are on the south coast, the data shows that Suffolk performed very highly in relation to the rest of the country.

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East Suffolk is the area in the county with the highest number of centenarians, at 43 per 100,000 people in the population.

West Suffolk also scored highly, with 37 people aged 100 or more per 100,000 people.

Babergh was just behind, with 36.

Mid-Suffolk is the anomaly for the county, with only 21 centenarians per 100,000 of the population.

Stuart Lewis, chief executive of Rest Less, said: "Thanks to continued medical advances and improvements in healthy living, becoming a centenarian is not as rare as it used to be.

"In 2022, a record 15,120 people in England and Wales received a birthday card from the King.

"If population estimates are anything to go by, this number is only set to increase, which will have a remarkable impact on how we live and work.

"Reaching 100 is an achievement which deserves to be celebrated but we think it’s important for attention to shift away from the age we are living to, towards the number of healthy years lived."