How long are you going to live?

There is no time to waste, so listen up.

Not that there is any guarantee that any of us will get to see the sun come up tomorrow, of course, let alone the year 2045, which is provisionally scheduled to be the year of my death.

But at least the odds seem to be on my side.

I know this after stumbling on an interesting new page on the BBC website, all about life expectancy in countries around the world.

It ranges from only 50 years for people born this year in the Central African Republic, to 84 in Japan and Singapore, who are top of the tree.

In Britain the average has risen from the ‘three score years and ten’ we were brought up to expect, to an estimated 81 for people born in 2018.

There is more interesting information in the report, including the news that while women generally live longer than men, there are three countries in the world where, for some reason, men last longer.

They are Kuwait and Mauritania, plus the Republic of Congo, although the men there hardly have much to celebrate because the country’s average is just 62.

Africans generally have a poor outlook, mostly due to the continuing prevalence of HIV across the continent, and in some places life expectancy is actually falling.

Included among all this information is what the BBC call a Life Expectancy Calculator, and if you click on the link (www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44107940) it takes you to a page with the disturbing headline ‘How long are you going to live?’

All you have to do is put in your age, country of residence and sex, and - hey presto! - you are confronted by an estimate of how long you have left before you start pushing up the daisies.

I must admit I filled it in with some trepidation, but felt quite relieved when it came back to say I can expect to live to be 84, so I have 27 years left, which adds up to 9,855 days.

But hold on a minute. How come I am going to live to be 84, yet babies born in 2018 will only get to 81?

That can’t be right, so surely the calculator has mis-calculated my result.

But you won’t see me demanding a recount.

Although the years whizz by in the blink of an eye these days, and the calculator says I have already had more than two thirds of my allotted time, 27 more years seems like a good deal to me, so I’ll take it, thanks.

And there is even better news, because the calculator also says I can expect to enjoy good health for 79 per cent of my remaining time, which also sounds like a good deal.

What’s more, that must be an average, since it doesn’t take into account fitness or lifestyle, and as I hop on my bike most days, I reckon I am fitter and healthier than most blokes of my age, so should do even better.

Sadly, what the calculator isn’t programmed to reveal is what a lot of people are keen to know: whether they will live long enough to see England win the World Cup.

But I have come up with a handy formula to work it out, based on performances since 1966, and assuming penalty shoot-outs are here to stay.

All you have to do is try the Life Expectancy Calculator, and note down your result. If it says you are going to live to be less than 300, then I am afraid you’re going to be disappointed.