A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is someone who has lived to or passed their 110th birthday. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000
centenarian
A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...
s. Anderson ''et al.'' concluded that supercentenarians live a life typically free of major age-related diseases until shortly before
maximum human lifespan is reached (theoretically estimated to be 126 years).
European supercentenarians
European supercentenarians are residents or emigrants from
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
who have attained or surpassed 110 years of age. By January 2015 the
Gerontology Research Group
The Gerontology Research Group (GRG) based in Los Angeles, California, US, is a global non-profit scientific organization of researchers in various fields of gerontology, primarily concerned with validating the ages of, recording and researching ...
(GRG) had validated the longevity claims of more than 600 European
supercentenarian
A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a person who is 110 or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until short ...
s.
[
The oldest European and the world's oldest person ever recorded was Frenchwoman ]Jeanne Calment
Jeanne Louise Calment (; 21 February 1875 – 4 August 1997) was a French supercentenarian. With a documented lifespan of 122 years and 164 days, she was the oldest people, oldest person in history whose age has been verified. Her longevity at ...
, who lived to the age of 122 years and 164 days. This has been disputed by some researchers. The oldest European man ever was Christian Mortensen from Denmark, who emigrated to the United States where he died aged 115 years and 252 days. The oldest non-emigrant European man was Spaniard
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking Ethnicity, ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern Nation state, nation-state of Spain. Genetics, Genetically and Ethnolinguisti ...
Joan Riudavets Moll, who lived 114 years and 81 days.
Beyond the 50 oldest Europeans in aggregate, there are more detailed lists of the oldest Belgian, British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
, Danish, Dutch
Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
** Dutch people as an ethnic group ()
** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship ()
** Dutch language ()
* In specific terms, i ...
, Finnish, French, German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, Irish, Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
and Swedish people.
Oldest European residents ever
Below is a list of the oldest 50 supercentenarians who have died or are living in Europe. The list including all known and validated supercentenarians who died before 2015 was compiled by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).[ Later cases were sourced from more recent GRG data,][ as indicated in the table.
]
Oldest European emigrants ever
Below is a list of the oldest supercentenarians born in Europe who emigrated to another continent and either died or are still living there.
African supercentenarians
This is an incomplete list of people born in Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
who have lived at least 110 years. Most of the listed persons were born in former colonies
A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...
that already maintained systematic birth record
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ens ...
s in the 19th century. Many other supercentenarian cases likely exist in Africa, but are not adequately documented.
Asian supercentenarians
This is an incomplete list of supercentenarian
A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a person who is 110 or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until short ...
s who were born or died in Asia, or are living there. According to the Gerontology Research Group, the verified oldest Asian person ever is Kane Tanaka
was a Japanese supercentenarian who, until her death at the age of , was the world's oldest verified living person, following the death of Chiyo Miyako on 22 July 2018. She is the oldest verified Japanese person and the second-oldest verifi ...
of Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, who died on 19 April 2022, aged 119 years and 107 days.[ The verified oldest man is ]Jiroemon Kimura
Jiroemon Kimura (Japanese: 木村 次郎右衛門, Hepburn: ''Kimura Jirōemon''; 19 April 1897 – 12 June 2013) was a Japanese supercentenarian who was the verified oldest living person between Dina Manfredini's death on 17 December 2012 and h ...
, also from Japan, who died on 12 June 2013, aged 116 years and 54 days. As of , the oldest living person in Asia is Miyoko Hiroyasu.
The vast majority of verified Asian cases of supercentenarians come from Japan, which has kept birth records for more than a century, while other Asian countries have historically been less meticulous about keeping such records. According to ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', China and India have many supercentenarians, but nearly none are confirmed, as their governments did not track births prior to the early 1900s.
Japan
Notable supercentenarians from other Asian countries
Oldest known Asian emigrants
Oceanian supercentenarians
Below is a list of supercentenarians who have died or are living in Oceania. The list including all known and validated supercentenarians who died before 2015 was compiled by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).[ Later cases were sourced either from more recent GRG data,][ from administrative reports or from press coverage, as indicated in the table. All Australian supercentenarians born prior to 1 January 1901 with mentioned birthplace Australia were born in the British colonies of Australia. All supercentenarians listed with New Zealand as their place of birth who were born prior to 26 September 1907, were born in the British ]colony of New Zealand
The Colony of New Zealand was a colony of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom from 1841 to 1907. British authority was vested in a List of governors-general of New Zealand, governor. The colony had Capital of New Zea ...
.
North American supercentenarians
United States
Canada
Other North American countries and territories
South American supercentenarians
Beyond the 50 oldest South Americans in aggregate, there are more detailed lists of the oldest Argentinian
Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...
and Brazilian people.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Supercentenarians by continent
Supercentenarians
A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a person who is 110 or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until short ...
Continent
A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...