Anniversaries and the start of a new year are both opportunities for pause and reflection. In 2025, The Lancet Healthy Longevity marked its fifth year of publication. When the journal launched, in October, 2020, the world was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing was particularly apt given the ageist attitudes revealed worldwide and the higher rates of morbidity and mortality seen in older populations. In the inaugural Editorial of the journal we argued that “Ageing is undeniably universal.
The Lancet Healthy Longevity (2026) studied this question.