premise: Twice as many people live till they are 100 in France as in Britain. Yet the two coun- tries have similar sized populations and have diets with similar amounts of fat. In fact life expectancy is considerably better in France from the age of 65 onwards and it seems that lifestyle and diet may have a lot to do with it. Leaving aside the fact that the French probably have the best national health service in the world, statistics suggest that the French remain active longer and consume more units of fruit and vegetables. They also enjoy considerably more glasses of red wine and it seems these differences give rise to far lower levels of death caused by heart disease and this allows significant numbers of people to live until their centenary.
hypothesis: Even if twice as many people in France see their centenary it may be that very few people live to see their 100th birthday in either country.