Last year I did a whole series on the longest-lived people ever. It’s 2020 and time to update the list. We’re talking specifically about the people who have lived the longest, with documented proof. I’ll give you the whole list, talk about what’s changed since last year, and ask some questions. What can we learn from the lives of this list of the royalty of longevity?

A person who lives past 110 is called a super-centenarian. All of the top 10 fall into that category. They are also all women.
I’ll give you the list of longest-lived people, but first I want to ask a few questions to help us think about what we could learn from this.

First, what was the quality of life of these people during those “extra” years? The average lifespan of a woman born in 1919 was 58. For someone my age it was 68. What was life like after they reached that average age, in the final years?

Second, living to be over 100 is still very rare. Though some estimates say that children born today have a 33% chance of living to be 100. But for someone born in 1919, that actual survival rate is a lot less. According to Dan Buettner in a Ted Talk from 2013, only about 1 in 5000 in the US live to be 100. Since this is such a small number of us, is anything about their lives relevant to the rest of us?

These are some questions we’ll keep in mind as we go through the list. Which I’ll now outline for you.

10. Misao Okawa, of Japan, who lived from 1898 to 2015, 117 years, 27 days. She is down one from #9 last year. Last year’s #10, Maria Capovilla, has been kicked out by a new addition to the list.

9. Chiyo Miyako, also Japanese, 1901 to 2018, total age 117 years, 81 days. Down from #8 last year.

8. NEW THIS YEAR-Kane Tanaka, born 2 January 1903, 117 years, 137+ days.

7. Emma Morano, of italy, 1899 to 2017, 117 years, 137 days.

6. Violet Brown, from Jamaica, lived 1900 to 2017, 117 years, 189 days.

5. Marie-Louise Meilleur, Canadian, lived 1880 to 1998, 117 years, 230 days.

4. Lucy Hannah, United States, 1875 to 1993, 117 years, 248 days.

3. Nabi Tajima, Japan, 1900-2018, 117 years, 260 days.

2. Sarah Knauss, US, 1880-1999, 119 years, 97 days.

1. Jeanne Calment, France, 1875-1997, 122 years, 164 days.

All of these are women. The man who lived the longest? Jiroemon Kimura, still holds that record. He lived 116 years, 54 days. The average woman can still expect to live as much as five years longer than the average man. That makes me an underdog….I kinda like that!

So I’m only looking to make it to 120, and that’s apparently already been done, so no big deal!

Next episode, I’ll tell you more about our new addition to the list this year, 117-year-old Kane Tanaka.

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy#Sex_differences