Supercentenarian

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Early supercentenarian Ann Pouder (8 April 1807 – 10 July 1917) photographed on her 110th birthday.

A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is someone who has reached the age of 110 years, something achieved by only one in a thousand centenarians (based on European data). Furthermore, only 1 in 50 supercentenarians lives to be 115.

The term has been around at least since the 1970s (as one citation, Norris McWhirter, editor of the Guinness Book of World Records, used the word in correspondence with age claims researcher A. Ross Eckler, Jr. in 1976), and was further popularized 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.^{[citation needed]} Claims of extreme age have been routinely made since antiquity; however, few of these claims withstand clerical scrutiny (e.g. is there a birth certificate? Does the date match the marriage certificate? Or the census data?). The oldest human with proof was Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122.

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

[edit] 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, who was born on 6 April 1745, and died on 26 March 1857 at age 111 years 354 days (Guinness once accepted one Pierre Joubert, but later dropped him, when it was discovered that he had been confused with his father). Scholars such as French demographer Jean-Marie Robine, however, consider Geert Adriaans Boomgaard (1788–1899), 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 111th birthdays were celebrated in New York State in 1926, first by Louisa Thiers, and then Delina Filkins of Herkimer County. She was born on 4 May 1815 and died on 4 December 1928 having reached the age of 113. The Guinness Book of World Records accepted the claim of Martha Graham as the first ever 114-year-old. The Social Security Administration recognizes Mathew Beard as having attained the same age in 1984, but the earliest fully validated case is the one of Anna Eliza Williams in 1987.

Guinness also recognized 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, 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.

Like Izumi, Carrie C. White is recognized by Guinness to have reached the ages of 115 and 116, but scholars believe these were Jeanne Calment's first milestones. Her 122 years 164 days is the longest lifespan documented beyond reasonable doubt. Over one thousand supercentenarians have been documented in history, and it is likely that more have really 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 standardized in more countries and parts of countries attain supercentenarian age.

Only 2% of verified supercentenarians have lived to celebrate their 115th birthday. Just 0.7% of verified supercentenarians have celebrated their 116th birthday, and 0.4% of verified supercentenarians have celebrated their 117th birthday.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Verified supercentenarians over 115 years

This including cases verified by Guinness World Records but that were later disputed. As of 14 July 2009, there is one living supercentenarian who is 115 or older.

Rank	Name	Sex	Birth	Death	Age	Country
1	Jeanne Calment	F	21 February 1875	4 August 1997	122 years, 164 days	France
2	Shigechiyo Izumi	M	29 June 1865?	21 February 1986	120 years, 237 days?[1]	Japan
3	Sarah Knauss	F	24 September 1880	30 December 1999	119 years, 97 days	United States
4	Lucy Hannah	F	16 July 1875	21 March 1993	117 years, 248 days	United States
5	Marie-Louise Meilleur	F	29 August 1880	16 April 1998	117 years, 230 days	Canada
6	María Capovilla	F	14 September 1889	27 August 2006	116 years, 347 days	Ecuador
7	Tane Ikai	F	18 January 1879	12 July 1995	116 years, 175 days	Japan
8	Elizabeth Bolden	F	15 August 1890	11 December 2006	116 years, 118 days	United States
9	Carrie C. White	F	18 November 1874?	14 February 1991	116 years, 88 days?[2]	United States
10	Kamato Hongo	F	16 September 1887?	31 October 2003	116 years, 45 days?[3]	Japan
11	Maggie Barnes	F	6 March 1882	19 January 1998	115 years, 319 days	United States
12	Christian Mortensen	M	16 August 1882	25 April 1998	115 years, 252 days	Denmark  United States
13	Charlotte Hughes	F	1 August 1877	17 March 1993	115 years, 228 days	United Kingdom
14	Edna Parker	F	20 April 1893	26 November 2008	115 years, 220 days	United States
15	Margaret Skeete	F	27 October 1878	7 May 1994	115 years, 192 days	United States
16	Anitica Butariu	F	17 June 1882?	21 November 1997	115 years, 157 days?[4]	Romania
17	Emiliano Mercado del Toro	M	21 August 1891	24 January 2007	115 years, 156 days	United States
18	Bettie Wilson	F	13 September 1890	13 February 2006	115 years, 153 days	United States
19	Julie Winnefred Bertrand	F	16 September 1891	18 January 2007	115 years, 124 days	Canada
20	Maria de Jesus	F	10 September 1893	2 January 2009	115 years, 114 days	Portugal
21	Susie Gibson	F	31 October 1890	16 February 2006	115 years, 108 days	United States
22	Gertrude Baines	F	6 April 1894	Living	&0000000000000115.000000115 years, &0000000000000099.00000099 days	United States
23	Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper	F	29 June 1890	30 August 2005	115 years, 62 days	Netherlands
24	Maude Farris-Luse	F	21 January 1887	18 March 2002	115 years, 56 days	United States
25	Marie Brémont	F	25 April 1886	6 June 2001	115 years, 42 days	France
26	Annie Jennings	F	12 November 1884	20 November 1999	115 years, 8 days	United Kingdom

^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (March 2008)

• Louis Epstein: The Oldest Human Beings – list of validly-documented supercentenarians (by age and chronological), including a chronological list of the oldest living listed persons since 1955 (however, for a time in the 1960s the oldest living person did not reach 110).

[edit] External links

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