Millions more older people will be living with a long-term illness by 2025, a charity warned yesterday.

Coronary heart disease, osteoporosis and dementia are just some of the conditions that more and more people will be battling with in later years, according to data from the charity Help the Aged.

And it warned that figures will continue to go up as people live longer than ever before. The data from the research arm of Help the Aged, Research into Ageing, found that the number of people living with long-term illnesses will rise dramatically from now on.

The estimated number of people living with the effects of stroke, which mostly strikes people over the age of 60, will rise around 46%, from 601,000 now to 878,000 in 2025.

Those living with late-onset dementia will go up 50% from 668,000 to a million and those with incontinence will go from more than three million now to around 4.1 million, a rise of 37%.

The number of people living with coronary heart disease will rise from 1.8 million now to 2.6 million (an increase of 42%) while the number with osteoporosis will go up 37%, from three million now to 4.1 million in 2025.

The numbers with osteoarthritis will rise from around eight million now to almost 11 million (up 37%) and those with age-related macular degeneration of their sight will go up 52%, from 2.5 million to 3.8 million.

Among those living with a disability over the age of 65, there will be 67% more sufferers, from around 868,000 now to more than 1.4 million in 2025.

People over the age of 65 who describe themselves as having a limiting long-term illness will rise 45%, from more than 4.2 million to 6.1 million.

At the moment, around 9.7 million people in the UK are over 65, but this will rise 42% to almost 14 million by 2025.

As people live longer, they will spend more years of their life in ill health. Men will live an average of 6.8 years of their life and women will live 9.1 years of their life with a long-term illness.

Dr Lorna Layward, from Research into Ageing, said: “The good news is that we have never lived so long, and never lived so long in good health.

“But, with an ever-ageing population, we are set to see increases in a whole range of distressing diseases, from dementia to incontinence, within a generation.

“Unless we find ways to prevent or treat these conditions, the strain on society and its infrastructure will reach breaking point.

“More attention and funding must be directed to researching the causes, prevention and treatment of the diseases and disabilities that become increasingly common with age.”

Figures suggest that the financial cost of health and social care for older people currently accounts for around 43% of the NHS annual budget, or around £35-40 billion per year. Help the Aged estimates the cost could rise to £52 billion by 2025.