They are the oldest of the old, an elite club of people who’ve lived to the age of 110 or more.
Deeper Dive
In 2016, there were 82,000 centenarians in the United States. This figure is expected to increase to 589,000 in the year 2060, Statista projects. Globally, there were more than a half million centenarians in 2015, according to United Nations estimates. And this growth is expected to accelerate: Projections suggest there will be 3.7 million centenarians across the globe in 2050, Pew Research noted.
Centenarians – people who live to the age of 100 or more – have also been a subject of considerable interest for many years. The United States has more centenarians than any nation on earth – one in every 10,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Surviving to the age of 100 appears to be “a complex combination of genetics, environment, lifestyle and luck,” wrote Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University. The oldest verified super centenarian was a French woman, Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122 years and 164 days, according to the Better Humans Super Centenarian study.
Researchers point out that a combination of factors, from good genes to a healthy lifestyle may help people reach old age, but it’s not clear exactly what, or what combination of factors, push someone past the century mark.