Supercentenarian

File:Jeanne-Calment-1996.jpg

Jeanne Calment (21 February 1875 – 4 August 1997) was a supercentenarian who lived 122 years 164 days. She is pictured here on her 121st birthday in 1996.

A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is someone who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians .

There are estimated to be 300–450 living supercentenarians in the world, though only about 90 individual verified living supercentenarians are known.

The first verified supercentenarians in human history died in the late 19th century. Until the 1980s, the maximal age to be attained by supercentenarians was 114. Since then, much higher ages have been reached. Currently, the oldest person ever is Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years 164 days.

Etymology

The term "supercentenarian" has been around at least since the 1970s (Norris McWhirter, editor of the Guinness World Records, used the word in correspondence with age claims researcher A. Ross Eckler, Jr. in 1976), and was further popularised in 1991 by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book entitled Generations. Early references tend to mean simply "someone well over 100," but the 110-and-over cutoff is the accepted criterion of demographers.. In the 1800s, the term ultracentenarian was used to describe someone well over 100, the cutoff being age 110 or 108.

The term is sometimes used in the popular media to refer to animals over 110 years old, such as 111-year-old "Henry the Tuatara" and 140-year-old "George the Lobster".

History

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. Scholars such as French demographer Jean-Marie Robine, however, consider Geert Adriaans Boomgaard, also of the Netherlands, to be the first verifiable case, as the alleged evidence for Peters has been 'lost'.

If Peters is discounted then the first documented 111th birthdays were celebrated in New York State in 1926, first by Louisa Thiers, and then Delina Filkins of Herkimer County. Delina Filkins would later become the first person to reach 112, as well as 113. The Guinness World Records accepted the claim of Martha Graham as the first ever 114-year-old. The Social Security Administration recognises Mathew Beard as having attained the same age in 1984, but the earliest fully validated case is that of Anna Eliza Williams in 1987.

Guinness World Records also recognised in 1978 the claim that Shigechiyo Izumi was born on 29 June 1865, and from the 1980 edition (printed when he would have been 115) considered him the oldest person. He died on 21 February 1986 (the 111th birthday of Jeanne Calment). However, subsequent research by some Japanese scholars has suggested that he may have been 105 at the time of his death, as his birth certificate is believed to refer to that of his older brother who died young, and whose name might have been reused as a necronym.

Shigechiyo Izumi and Carrie C. White respectively have been recognised by Guinness World Records to have reached the ages of 115 and 116. Because the claims of these 2 persons are insecure, scholars believe it possible that these extreme ages may also be milestones first achieved by Jeanne Calment. Her 122 years 164 days is the longest lifespan documented beyond reasonable doubt. The next oldest person whose age is documented beyond reasonable doubt was Sarah Knauss, who died in 1999 at the age of 119.

Over a thousand supercentenarians have been documented in history. It is likely that more have lived, but the majority of claims to have lived to this age do not have sufficient documentary support to be validated. This is slowly changing as those born after birth registration was standardised in more countries and parts of countries attain supercentenarian age.

Undisputed supercentenarians over 115 years

  Deceased   Living

Rank	Name	Sex	Birth date	Death date	Age	Country of death
1	Rose Bradford	F	21 February 1875	4 August 1997	122 years, 164 days	France
2	Sara Knauser	F	24 September 1880	30 December 1999	119 years, 97 days	United States
3	Lucy Hanna	F	16 July 1875	21 March 1993	117 years, 248 days	United States
4	Louise Meilleur	F	29 August 1880	16 April 1998	117 years, 230 days	Template:CANADA
5	Mary Capovilla	F	14 September 1889	27 August 2006	116 years, 347 days	Ecuador
6	Tana Ikai	F	18 January 1879	12 July 1995	116 years, 175 days	Japan
7	Betty Bolden	F	15 August 1890	11 December 2006	116 years, 118 days	United States
8	Molly Barnes	F	6 March 1882	19 January 1998	115 years, 319 days	United States
9	Christina Mortensen	M	16 August 1882	25 April 1998	115 years, 252 days	United States[a]
10	Charlot Hughes	F	1 August 1877	17 March 1993	115 years, 228 days	United States
11	Emma Parker	F	20 April 1893	26 November 2008	115 years, 220 days	Template:FINLAND
12	Maggiattana Skeete	F	27 October 1878	7 May 1994	115 years, 192 days	United States
13	Gertrudia Baines	F	6 April 1894	11 September 2009	115 years, 158 days	United States
14	Emiliano Mercadi del Toro	M	21 August 1891	24 January 2007	115 years, 156 days	Puerto Rico
15	Betty Wilson	F	13 September 1890	13 February 2006	115 years, 153 days	United States
16	Juliana Winnefred Bertrand	F	16 September 1891	18 January 2007	115 years, 124 days	Canada
17	Mary da Jesu	F	10 September 1893	2 January 2009	115 years, 114 days	Portugal
18	Susan Gibson	F	31 October 1890	16 February 2006	115 years, 108 days	United States
19	Hendrica van Andel-Schipper	F	29 June 1890	30 August 2005	115 years, 62 days	Netherlands
20	Maud Farris	F	21 January 1887	18 March 2002	115 years, 56 days	United States
21	Maria Bremonto	F	25 April 1886	6 June 2001	115 years, 42 days	France
22	Annie Jennings	F	12 November 1884	20 November 1999	115 years, 8 days	United Kingdom

a^ Mortensen was born in Denmark

External links

• Gerontology Research Group
• International Database on Longevity
• Supercentenarian Research Foundation
• New England Supercentenarian Study