Longevity claims
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 or Guinness World Records. This article lists living claims greater than that of the oldest living person whose age has been independently verified, Kane Tanaka at, and deceased claims greater than that of the oldest person ever whose age has been verified, namely Jeanne Calment who died at the age of 122 years, 164 days. The upper limit for both lists is 130 years.
Scientific status
Prior to the 19th century, there was insufficient evidence either to demonstrate or to refute centenarian longevity. Even today, no fixed theoretical limit to human longevity is apparent. Studies in the biodemography of human longevity indicate a late-life mortality deceleration law: that death rates level off at advanced ages to a late-life mortality plateau. This implies that there is no fixed upper limit to human longevity, or fixed maximum human lifespan.Researchers in Denmark have found a way to determine when a person was born using radiocarbon dating done on the lens of the eye.
Categorization
In 1955, Guinness World Records began maintaining a list of the verified oldest people. It developed into a list of all supercentenarians whose lifespan had been verified by at least three documents, in a standardized process, according to the norms of modern longevity research. Many unverified cases have been controverted by reliable sources. Taking reliable demographic data into account, these unverified cases vary widely in their plausibility.Fully verified claims
- 51 people are fully verified as reaching 115.
- 22 of these people reached 116.
- 10 of these people are fully verified as reaching 117, and only 2 of them have surpassed this age.
- The oldest person verified by modern standards, and the only person with evidence to have lived to be 120, was French woman Jeanne Calment, aged 122 years, 164 days.
- The oldest man verified by modern standards, and the only man with undisputed evidence to have lived to be 116, was Japanese man Jiroemon Kimura, aged 116 years, 54 days.
- The oldest verified living person is Japanese woman Kane Tanaka, born 2 January 1903, age.
Problems in documenting
- The first two cases of people Guinness acknowledged as having reached 113 have now been discredited.
- The first three cases of people Guinness acknowledged as having reached 114 are no longer considered verified.
- Three people previously regarded by Guinness or the Gerontology Research Group as having reached 116 are no longer considered verified.
No single subject is more obscured by vanity, deceit, falsehood, and deliberate fraud than the extremes of human longevity.
Despite demographic evidence of the known extremes of modern longevity, stories in otherwise reliable sources still surface regularly, stating that these extremes have been exceeded. Responsible, modern, scientific validation of human longevity requires investigation of records following an individual from birth to the present ; purported longevity far outside the demonstrated records regularly fail such scrutiny.
Actuary Walter G. Bowerman stated that ill-founded longevity assertions originate mainly in remote, underdeveloped regions, among non-literate peoples, with only family testimony available as evidence. This means that people living in areas of the world with historically more comprehensive resources for record-keeping have tended to hold more claims to longevity, regardless of whether or not individuals in other parts of the world have lived longer.
In the transitional period of record-keeping, records tend to exist for the wealthy and upper-middle classes, but are often spotty and nonexistent for the middle classes and the poor. In the United States, birth registration did not begin in Mississippi until 1912 and was not universal until 1933. Hence, in many longevity cases, no actual birth record exists. This type of case is classified by gerontologists as "partially validated".
Proximate records
Since some cases were recorded in a census or in other reliable sources, obtainable evidence may complete full verification.- Maggie Barnes: Barnes claimed to be 117 at her death on 19 January 1998. Barnes, who was born to a former slave and married a tenant farmer, had fifteen children, 11 of whom preceded her in death. Inconsistent records suggested that she was born on 6 March 1882 at the latest, but possibly a year earlier. The conclusion is that Barnes was at least 115 years and 319 days old at her death, and may have been one to two years older.
Late-life records
- Hanna Barysevich: Barysevich claimed to have been 118. This can be neither verified nor disproven from Belarus records. The claim is demographically possible but incompletely verified.
- Pasikhat Dzhukalayeva: In 2004, The Moscow Times reported that Dzhukalayeva, of Chechnya, claimed to have been born in 1881. The claim is possible but incompletely verified. Her death has not been reported since that time, so no age above 122 has been verifiably claimed.
- Susie Brunson: Her obituaries appear in Star-News newspaper and The New York Times. Her family claimed that she was born December 25, 1870 and lived to age 123, dying in late November 1994.
Reports with complete date of birth
Recent
These living supercentenarian cases, in descending order of claimed age, with full birth and review dates, have been updated within the past two years, but have not had their claimed age validated by an independent body such as the Gerontology Research Group or Guinness World Records. Only claims greater than the oldest verified living person, Kane Tanaka, who is aged, but under 130 years are included in the list.| Name | Sex | Reported birth date | Age | Country | Latest report | Ref |
| Maria Lucimar Pereira | F | 3 September 1890 | Brazil | 6 June 2020 | ||
| Swami Sivananda | M | 8 August 1896 | India | 10 Oct 2019 | ||
| Manuel Garcia Hernandez | M | 24 December 1896 | Mexico | 28 Dec 2018 | ||
| Martha Hester Sehao | F | 9 January 1897 | South Africa | 14 April 2019 | ||
| Deolinda Soares Rodrigues | F | 24 June 1898 | Brazil | 24 June 2019 | ||
| Natividad Martinez de la Cruz | F | 4 January 1900 | Dominican Republic | 4 January 2020 | ||
| Filomena Maria da Conceição | F | 6 March 1900 | Brazil | 7 March 2020 | ||
| José Delgado Corrales | M | 10 March 1900 | Costa Rica | 10 March 2020 | ||
| Amantina dos Santos Duvirgem | F | 28 April 1900 | Brazil | 23 June 2019 | ||
| Teodora Maria de Alcantara | F | 18 August 1900 | Brazil | 19 April 2020 | ||
| Zenon Villca Flores | M | 21 August 1900 | Bolivia | 21 Aug 2019 | ||
| Zhu Zhengshi | F | 21 September 1900 | China | 10 Feb 2019 | ||
| Aguilar Jaramillo Ignacio | M | 11 January 1901 | Ecuador | 11 January 2020 | ||
| Emilio Duanes Dubalcer | M | 10 May 1901 | Haiti | 29 May 2020 | ||
| Maria Sao Pedro Conceicao | F | 10 August 1901 | Brazil | 2 Nov 2019 | ||
| Stephen Wright | M | 24 August 1901 | Jamaica | 26 Aug 2018 | ||
| Masima Leonora Noel | F | 9 December 1901 | Grenada | 10 December 2018 | ||
| Dorrisile Dervis | F | 25 December 1901 | United States | 9 January 2020 | ||
| Davino Gomes | M | 31 December 1901 | Brazil | 14 Jan 2020 | ||
| Sebastiao Batista dos Santos | M | 15 March 1902 | Brazil | 5 October 2019 |
Past
This table contains supercentenarian claims with either a known death date or no confirmation for more than 2 years that they were still alive. Only claims greater than that of Jeanne Calment who died at the age of 122 years, 164 days, but under 130 years are included. They are listed in order of age as of the date of death or date last reported alive.| Name | Sex | Reported birth date | Death date / latest report | Reported age | Country |
| Ali Ben Mohamed El Amri | M | 5 October 1880 | 30 September 2010 | Tunisia | |
| Koku Istambulova | F | 1 June 1889 | 27 January 2019 | Russia | |
| José Aguinelo dos Santos | M | 7 July 1888 | 20 December 2017 | Brazil | |
| Petronila Opol | F | 21 October 1851 | 7 February 1981 | Philippines | |
| Maria do Carmo Gerônimo | F | 5 March 1871 | 14 June 2000 | Brazil | |
| Mary Ewen | F | 5 May 1878 | 10 April 2007 | Jamaica | |
| Cruz Hernández | F | 3 May 1878 | 8 March 2007 | El Salvador | |
| Elizabeth Israel | F | 27 January 1875 | 14 October 2003 | Dominica | |
| Safiah Ujang | F | 11 February 1889 | 26 October 2017 | Malaysia | |
| José del Rosario Serrano | M | 5 March 1881 | 24 April 2009 | Colombia | |
| Swami Kalyandev | M | 26 June 1876 | 12 July 2004 | India | |
| William Johnson | M | 8 May 1881 | 15 May 2009 | United States | |
| Ajiben Chandravadia | F | 1 January 1891 | 13 December 2018 | India | |
| Luo Meizhen | F | 9 July 1885 | 9 June 2013 | China | |
| Juana Bautista de la Candelaria Rodríguez | F | 2 February 1885 | 24 December 2012 | Cuba | |
| Luang Pu Chant Siri | M | 10 April 1849 | 23 February 1977 | Thailand | |
| Halim Solmaz | F | 1 July 1884 | 29 March 2012 | Turkey | |
| Tshinyelo Dora Muzila | F | 4 May 1880 | 14 January 2008 | South Africa | |
| Leandra Becerra Lumbreras | F | 31 August 1887 | 19 March 2015 | Mexico | |
| Nicolas Savin | M | 17 April 1768 | 29 November 1894 | Russia | |
| Maria Gonçalves dos Santos | F | 24 June 1890 | 15 December 2016 | Brazil | |
| Benito Martínez Abrogán | M | 19 June 1880 | 11 October 2006 | Cuba | |
| Margarita Lacsi | F | 30 March 1878 | 27 May 2004 | Argentina | |
| Jackson Pollard | M | 25 December 1869 | 7 September 1995 | United States | |
| Nuri Öztunç | M | 1 July 1885 | 6 March 2011 | Turkey | |
| Juan Ramos | M | 24 June 1880 | 24 January 2006 | United States | |
| Aberewa Grace | F | 16 August 1878 | 18 January 2004 | Ghana | |
| Anna Visser | F | 25 December 1878 | 8 January 2004 | Namibia | |
| Maria Etelvina dos Santos | F | 15 July 1878 | 8 March 2003 | Brazil | |
| Hu Yeh-mei | F | 10 February 1885 | 24 August 2009 | Taiwan | |
| Socorro Medrano Guevara | F | 17 June 1894 | 13 September 2018 | Mexico | |
| Armando Frid | M | 24 May 1866 | 28 July 1990 | Argentina | |
| Maria Verissimo de Matos | F | 5 June 1888 | 17 June 2012 | Brazil | |
| Mariam Amash | F | 22 December 2012 | approx. 124 years | Israel | |
| Ana Martinha da Silva | F | 25 August 1880 | 27 July 2004 | Brazil | |
| Carmelo Flores Laura | M | 16 July 1890 | 9 June 2014 | Bolivia | |
| Juana Chox Yac | F | 29 November 1893 | 27 September 2017 | Guatemala | |
| Arthur Reed | M | 28 June 1860 | 15 April 1984 | Brazil | |
| Tanzilya Bisembeyeva | F | 14 March 1896 | 25 October 2019 | 123 years, 225 days. | Russia |
| Daw Mya Kyi | F | 9 October 1892 | fl. 17 May 2016 | Myanmar | |
| Tian Longyu | F | 9 June 1893 | fl. 30 October 2016 | China | |
| Hava Rexha | F | 14 August 1880 | 8 November 2003 | Albania | |
| Appaz Ilev | M | 1 March 1896 | 10 May 2019 | Russia | |
| Nguyễn Thị Trù | F | 4 May 1893 | 12 July 2016 | Vietnam | |
| Turupu Aimaiti | M | 5 February 1892 | fl. 26 February 2015 | China | |
| Live Larsdatter | F | 6 August 1575 | 9 July 1698 | Denmark | |
| Shukhrat Aliyeva | F | 1 January 1887 | 1 December 2009 | Brazil | |
| Oberia Coffin | F | 1 December 1883 | 18 October 2006 | United States | |
| Sudhakar Chaturvedi | M | 20 April 1897 | 27 February 2020 | India | |
| Nehemiah Ndur | M | 25 February 1890 | 10 December 2012 | Nigeria | |
| Dora Jacobs | F | 6 May 1880 | 19 January 2003 | South Africa | |
| Zhang Daoling | M | 15 January 34 | 9 September 156 | Han Dynasty | |
| Mamie Evans | F | 2 July 1872 | 15 January 1995 | United States | |
| David Peterson | M | 22 November 1850 | 31 May 1973 | United States | |
| Sarah Hoover | F | 25 June 1874 | 15 December 1996 | United States |