A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a human who is 110 years or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. [1] Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until shortly before the maximum human lifespan is reached. [2] [3]
The term "supercentenarian", originally hyphenated as super-centenarian, has existed since 1870. [4] [5]
Norris McWhirter, editor of Guinness World Records , used the term in association with age claim's researcher A. Ross Eckler Jr. in 1976, and the term was further popularised in 1991 by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book Generations .
The term "semisupercentenarian", has been used to describe someone from 105-109. Originally the term "supercentenarian" was used to mean someone well over the age of 100, but 110 years and over became the cutoff point of accepted criteria for demographers. [2] [6]
The Gerontology Research Group maintains a top 30–40 list of oldest verified living people. The researchers estimate, based on a 0.15% to 0.25% survival rate of centenarians until the age of 110, that there should be between 300 and 450 living supercentenarians in the world. [7] [8] A study conducted in 2010 by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research found 663 validated supercentenarians, living and dead, and showed that the countries with the highest total number (not frequency) of supercentenarians (in decreasing order) were the United States, [9] Japan, England plus Wales, France, and Italy. [1] [10] The first verified supercentenarian in human history was Dutchman Geert Adriaans Boomgaard (1788–1899), [11] and it was not until the 1980s that the oldest verified age surpassed 115.
While claims of extreme age have persisted from the earliest times in history, the earliest supercentenarian accepted by Guinness World Records is Dutchman Thomas Peters (reportedly 1745–1857).[ citation needed ] However, Peters's age cannot be reliably verified due to an absence of any documents recording his early life. [12] Other scholars, such as French demographer Jean-Marie Robine, consider Geert Adriaans Boomgaard, also of the Netherlands, who turned 110 in 1898, to be the first verifiable case, as the alleged evidence for Peters has apparently been lost. The evidence for the 112 years of Englishman William Hiseland (reportedly 1620–1732) does not meet the standards required by Guinness World Records. [13]
Church of Norway records, the accuracy of which is subject to dispute, also show what appear to be several supercentenarians who lived in the south-central part of present-day Norway during the 16th and 17th centuries, including Johannes Torpe (1549–1664),[ citation needed ] and Knud Erlandson Etun (1659–1770),[ citation needed ] both residents of Valdres, Oppland.[ citation needed ]
In 1902, Margaret Ann Neve, born in 1792, became the first verified female supercentenarian. [14]
Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997 aged 122 years, 164 days, had the longest human lifespan documented. The oldest man ever verified is Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, who died in 2013 aged 116 years and 54 days. [15]
Maria Branyas (born 4 March 1907) of Spain is the world's oldest living person, aged 117 years, 51 days. John Tinniswood (born 26 August 1912) of the United Kingdom is the world's oldest living man, aged 111 years, 242 days. [16] [17]
Research into centenarians helps scientists understand how an ordinary person might live longer. [18] [19] [20]
Organisations that research centenarians and supercentenarians include the GRG and the Supercentenarian Research Foundation. [21]
In May 2021, whole genome sequencing analysis of 81 Italian semi-supercentenarians and supercentenarians were published, along with 36 control group people from the same region who were simply of advanced age. [22]
Research on the morbidity of supercentenarians has found that they remain free of major age-related diseases (e.g., stroke, cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer, Parkinson's disease and diabetes) until the very end of life when they die of exhaustion of organ reserve, which is the ability to return organ function to homeostasis. [2] About 10% of supercentenarians survive until the last three months of life without major age-related diseases, as compared to only 4% of semi-supercentenarians and 3% of centenarians. [2]
By measuring the biological age of various tissues from supercentenarians, researchers may be able to identify the nature of those that are protected from ageing effects. According to a study of 30 different body parts from a 112-year-old female supercentenarian, along with younger controls, the cerebellum is protected from ageing, according to an epigenetic biomarker of tissue age known as the epigenetic clock—the reading is about 15 years younger than expected in a centenarian. [23] These findings could explain why the cerebellum exhibits fewer neuropathological hallmarks of age-related dementia as compared to other brain regions.
A 2021 genomic study identified genetic characteristics that protect against age-related diseases, particularly variants that improve DNA repair. Five variants were found to be significant, affecting STK17A (increased expression) and COA1 (reduced expression) genes. Supercentenarians also had an unexpectedly low level of somatic mutations. [24]
Sarah DeRemer Knauss was an American supercentenarian. She is the oldest person ever from the United States and, on April 16, 1998, became the world's oldest living person. She is the third-oldest verified person ever, living to the age of 119 years and 97 days. Her birthdate has been independently verified through numerous census and other records.
A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100 years. Because life expectancies worldwide are below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations in 2012 estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarians worldwide.
Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas life expectancy is defined statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth is the same as the average age at death for all people born in the same year.
Jeanne Louise Calment was a French supercentenarian and, with a documented lifespan of 122 years and 164 days, is the world's oldest verified person. Her longevity attracted media attention and medical studies of her health and lifestyle. She is the only person verified to have reached the age of 120.
Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper was a Dutch supercentenarian who lived to the age of 115 years, 62 days. She is the oldest person ever from the Netherlands, breaking the previous record of Catharina van Dam on 26 September 2003, and from 29 May 2004 was thought to be the oldest verified person in the world. She became the oldest living person in the Netherlands on 16 February 2001, at the age of 110 years and 232 days.
Thomas Peter Thorvald Kristian Ferdinand Mortensen, known as Christian Mortensen, was a Danish supercentenarian who resided in California, United States. When he died, his age of 115 years and 252 days was the longest verified male lifespan at the time, until Jiroemon Kimura surpassed him in 2012. Mortensen was baptized in Fruering Church on December 26, 1882. Besides his baptismal record, other records include the 1890 and 1901 census enumerations in Denmark, and church confirmation in 1896.
Longevity claims are unsubstantiated cases of asserted human longevity. Those asserting lifespans of 110 years or more are referred to as supercentenarians. Many have either no official verification or are backed only by partial evidence. Cases where longevity has been fully verified, according to modern standards of longevity research, are reflected in an established list of supercentenarians based on the work of organizations such as the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) or Guinness World Records. This article lists living claims greater than that of the oldest living person whose age has been independently verified, American-born Spanish woman Maria Branyas, aged 117 years, 48 days, and deceased claims greater than that of the oldest person ever whose age has been verified, French woman Jeanne Calment, who died aged 122 years and 164 days. The upper limit for both lists is 130 years.
This is a list of tables of the oldest people in the world in ordinal ranks. To avoid including false or unconfirmed claims of old age, names here are restricted to those people whose ages have been validated by an international body dealing in longevity research, such as the Gerontology Research Group or Guinness World Records, and others who have otherwise been reliably sourced.
The Gerontology Research Group (GRG) based in Los Angeles, California, USA, is a global non-profit scientific organization of researchers in various fields of gerontology, primarily concerned with validating the ages of, recording and researching supercentenarians.
Miriam Sparks Bannister née Voisey was an English woman, who was one of the earliest recognized supercentenarians.
The New England Centenarian Study is a study of persons aged 100 and over (centenarians) in the Boston area.
Jean-Marie Robine is a French social scientist, who works in the field of demography and gerontology, and is an author and journalist, who is best known as being the co-validator of the longevity of Jeanne Calment, the oldest verified supercentenarian of all time, with whom he collaborated.
A centenarian is a person who has attained the age of 100 years or more. Research on centenarians has become more common with clinical and general population studies now having been conducted in France, Hungary, Japan, Italy, Finland, Denmark, the United States, and China. Centenarians are the second fastest-growing demographic in much of the developed world. By 2030, it is expected that there will be around a million centenarians worldwide. In the United States, a 2010 Census Bureau report found that more than 80 percent of centenarians are women.
This timeline lists notable events in the history of research into senescence or biological aging, including the research and development of life extension methods, brain aging delay methods and rejuvenation.