GENEVA, April 25 (Xinhua) -- One in four girls born in Switzerland in 2017 could reach the age of 100, and girls born then could well live to 85.4 years, and boys could reach 81.4 years, Swiss media reported Thursday citing a new forecast.

Life expectancy figures show that Swiss men are slowly catching up with women, the Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA reported citing the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

The average Swiss boasts one of the world's highest life expectancies; wealth, well-being and eating cheese are three of the secrets, Swissinfo, the website of the national broadcaster reported.

Boys born in 1997 had an average life expectancy of 76.3 years, 5.8 years less than girls born the same year, said the FSO.

On average, Swiss boys born ten years later in 2007 are likely to reach 79.4 years, while the age for girls is 84.2 years, a difference of 4.8 years.

For the generation born in 2017, this gap should narrow to four years.

For children born in 1917, only 0.4 percent of boys and 1.7 percent of girls reached 100.

This possibility rises to 4 percent of men and 11 percent of women born in 1967.

For those born in 2017, 15 percent of men and 26 percent of women could well hit the 100-year mark.

The steady increase in average lifespan over the past century is mainly due to a decrease in infant mortality and a decline in the number of deaths from infectious diseases at all ages, the statistical office said.