It seems we are living longer and longer. With people reaching almost a century or more no longer an unusual feat, a new study has found it is very unlikely someone would live to see over 115 years of age.

A research team from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine conducted the study by analyzing data from the Human Mortality Database and the deaths of those over 100 in France, Japan, UK and US – four countries with the highest level of over-100s. Although some had managed to reach beyond 115 years, life expectancy had slowed down in centenarians over the last 20 years dashing earlier claims that it was possible in the future, for people to live longer and longer.

“It seems highly likely we have reached our ceiling,” said Dr. Vijg, an expert on aging and who worked on the study. “From now on, this is it. Humans will never get older than 115.”

The research comes from scientists debating whether there is some kind of natural limitation to human life spans. While life expectancy at birth has improved due to health measures such as maternity care, vaccines and antibiotics, it seems there will always be a limit that can’t be improved upon.

The researchers believe the limit to human life is down to genetic programs that control processes such as development and growth rather than biological processes that determine when life will end within us.

“To get maximum life spans of 120, 125 or 130 maybe, we need to do something very fundamental here. We need to change the whole genetic make-up of the human species, you would have to develop thousands or tens of thousands of different drugs. The ageing process is so complicated that it will not be possible to substantially change this limit to human life.”

Details of the study were published in the journal Nature.