OFFICIAL TABLES

The following tables describe the known Supercentenarians [*]
as maintained by the The Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group on a world-wide basis.

____________________________________________
* By definition, a Supercentenarian is a validated human centenarian who has attained the age of 110 years or more.

[Certain of these tables were last updated on Saturday, August 28, 2010]

Persons listed in the tables below have reached the age of 110 according to the following criteria:
(1) Tables of authenticated national longevity records or other mentions in the Guinness Book of (World) Records in various editions from 1970 on (except for Thiers [1956 Edition] and Turner [1968 Edition]);
(2) They have been otherwise mentioned (usually in press reports) as having passed muster with the documentation standards of the Guinness Book; or
(3) They have been verified by official records and generally supported by demographic research.

We intentionally omit individuals who did not make it past 109 years of age, since they are much too numerous for us to attempt to list them here.


Background of the Tables:

These tables were created with the help of an international team of researchers including professional demographers, university-based biologists, as well as a few highly dedicated amateurs who have devoted countless hours over the last several years to the largely thankless task of maintaining the tables as accurately as possible. Along the way, many journalists from different parts of the world, who normally write human-interest stories on local celebrities, have assisted us in our contacts with family members who in turn provide official documentation. Nursing home staff in various parts of the country have also been extremely helpful. Note that our contributors work diligently to meet the challenge of numerous pretenders to membership whose documentation is either forged or missing for a variety of reasons. These individuals have been systematically omitted. Furthermore, our Tables are certainly incomplete in that, for the less-developed countries, many individuals, who may have valid claims, have incomplete documentation (like only a family Bible) since official documents never existed in these countries, if and when they began keeping census records at all. Besides Birth Certificates, Baptismal Certificates are also used when available. Also, we may not even know about some of these people, and their families may have no incentive to inform scientists or government officials just because demographers happen to be gratuitously interested in this subject.


TABLE E -- CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF LIVING SUPERCENTENARIANS

Note: See below for Historical Table E year-by-year data dating from 1975.

As of August 28, 2010, we have 80 Living Supercentenarians on this list (77 Females and 3 Males)

Current GRG Table of Worldwide Validated Living Supercentenarians
Scroll down in Table E for information about Recent Deaths

May 15, 2010; We are working on a new format for Table E based on newer data base technology compared with Microsoft Excel that we hope will permanently replace the current version by June 1st. This Beta Test version was developed by Johnny Adams, our Data Base Administrator, in collaboration with Robert Young, our Senior Data Base Analyst. To see what it looks like, click on New Format Table E. - Steve Coles, System Administrator


Other Comments: The oldest Living American Man, Mr. John McMorran of Florida and Michigan died around 1:00 PM EST on Monday, February 24, 2003 at age 113; his obituary with more details is provided in the News Section under the items for February 25, 2003.
Mrs. Catherine Kral and Adelina Domingues (age 114) have now died.
We have learned from her Great Grandson, Gregory Bech, that Ms. Jessie Hurley of Australia has died. Since our last update in January Mrs. Maud Farris-Luse, the World's Oldest Living Person died of pneumonia on Monday, March 18th, She was 115 years, 56 days. Dr. Leopold Vietoris died on April 9th, and Madam Germaine Haye died on April 18th at age 113. Mrs. Delvina Dahlheimer died on Wednesday, March 13th. She turned 113 last New Year's Eve, and as recently as last month was reported to me to be playing cards a few times a week. Mrs. Nellie Bradley died on Monday, March 11th at age 112 years 180 days. Also, two new members have been added (one male and one female). In December there were a number of new additions canceled by a number of deaths, so the net number of members didn't really change by that much. The most noteworthy death was Mr. Antonio Todde of Tiana, Sardinia, ITALY, formerly the "World's Oldest Living Man" (Mr. Todde passed away peacefully in his sleep on Thursday/Friday morning, January 3rd at the age of 112 just shy of his 113th birthday). Therefore, the "new" oldest living man title now goes to Mr. Yukichi Chuganji of Japan at age 112, who was just official recognized as such by The Guinness Book of Records.
Also, Mrs. Geneva Arlene McNicholl of the USA, born December 10, 1889 in Lafayette, OR died on January 22, 2002 at 112 years 43 days.
. [Prior to the previous update, there were eleven deaths (including Mrs. Elsa Moberg of Swede who died on November 27, 2001 at age 112, Mrs. Hanna Eriksson (June 26, 2001); Mrs. Anna Balsiger (September 14, 2001); Mrs. Viola McCague age 113 of Canada and Mrs. Marie-Laure Nadon age 112 also of Canada who died on August 18, 2001, three ladies from Japan: Gozei Taba, Soto Kitagawa, and Hanae Sugiyama), and Mrs. Amy Hulmes of the UK on October 27, 2001; and 12 new additions (four men and eight women [Mrs. Christina Cock of Australia, 113 years old, born Christmas Day 1887; Mrs. Julie Bertrand of Canada; Mrs. Kame Nagayama of Japan; Mrs. Jenny Karlsson of Sweden, and six new 110-year-old validated Japanese persons as of September 11th.]) since our last posting on May 16th]

Click for Table E.

August 15, 2009; Click for historical Table E data from

1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
2000
2001
2003
2004
2005
2006

The missing year of 1999 will be added later to complete the set from 1971 to the present, as soon as time permits.

June 19, 2010; For Pending Cases that are under currently under consideration, click on Table EE. These cases have already provided us with at least one document.


Acknowledgments:

There are now more than 45 contributors and their associated staff from the following countries: USA, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and Japan. The list is compiled for publication by Mr. Louis Epstein of New York. A complete list of contributors is available upon request


Confidentiality Statement:

For reasons of privacy, details of these individuals' supporting documentation are on file with Mr. Epstein and could be made available to legitimate demographic researchers upon request. A uniquely important feature of our research protocol is the focus on persons whose age has been thoroughly validated. For a rigorous validation of the age of a Supercentenarian, it is in many instances necessary to work with personal information For example, in some countries the actual name of a person is needed to retrieve and match birth and death certificates. Appropriate procedures and rules will be designed to protect the confidential nature of personal information, taking into account prevailing data and protection laws in different countries. For example, Germany has different laws from France and the UK. Data protection procedures and rules adopted by the GRG and the IDL (International Data Base on Longevity) are governed by the general principle that private data about individual persons should not be possible from the information that will eventually be included in a public database unless it is essential for identification purposes. For example, among these rules is the provision that only specially-trained validation personnel will have access to private personal information (like addresses, phone numbers, names of family members, and so on). This sort of private personal information will not be made available to researchers and other individuals who are external to the validation process and will not be included in any public version of the database.


February 17, 2003; Question for the Editor by Mr. Christian Quast on the seemingly-paradoxical preponderance of Americans in Table A and a reply by Mr. Robert Young of Atlanta, Georgia, which presents a brief history of human longevity studies in general and the demographics of these Tables in particular.

TABLE A -- CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF ALL SUPERCENTENARIANS

Click for Table A.

===================NOTES FOR TABLE A=======================

Editor's Note: The "as-of" dates on those individuals without death dates are occasionally inconsistent.

Mr. Louis Epstein of New York has contributed Tables [A - D] along with the Notes that follow. He may be reached at le@put.com if you have any pertinent questions. We also wish to acknowledge the contributions of Mr. Robert Young and many others who have provided us with the benefit of their extensive investigational effort.

** For the purposes of this Table, women's Maiden Names (when known) are parenthesized and followed by their married names, regardless of their native homeland practice. The Guinness Book has often used hyphenations particular to different countries.**

There have doubtless been other authenticated 110-year-old claims for countries with higher records. As of now the only countries where such data has been thoroughly surveyed, it seems, are Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK (only for England and Wales). However, with regard to persons migrating between countries no population has been surveyed exhaustively. In Japan and the United States surveys have been attempted that are complete only for recent years.

Bowerman, 1939, accepted as validated Joubert (formerly accepted by Guinness and since discredited), Neve, Thiers (in Guinness from early dates, not specifically discredited), Plunket (regarded as rather solidly validated), and Filkins (only regarded as validated by Guinness from 1976 edition onwards),as having lived to 110 years or more, and also the following two cases:

(1) "Mrs. Ann Alexander Pouder (April 8, 1807 to July 10, 1917) age 110 years, 93 days. Authenticated by the Genealogical Record Office, Washington, D.C., by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor, and the Health Department, Baltimore, MD. Born in England; died at Baltimore, MD"

(2) "Mrs. Miriam Sparks Voisey Bannister (March 19, 1817 to April 9, 1928) age 111 years, 21 days. She was authenticated by Prof. Irving.Fisher, New Haven, CT, and Alexander S. Mann of St. Louis, also the Census Bureau at Washington, D.C. born at Salcombe Regis, Devonshire, ENGLAND. She died in St. Louis, MO. She was congratulated by the King of England as `The oldest living British subject,' shortly before her death."

Izykowska is accepted by Warsaw authorities, but was born in Ukraine.

Shirahama, Ikai, Utagawa, Miyanaga, Takii, Matsunaga, Akino, Kayo, Ishisaki, Hongo, Tsugawa, Fujisawa, Fujii,Tsuru, Koja, C. Nakamura, Ishii, Fukaya, M. Ito, Misawa, Iwasaki, Tani, Hashimoto, Takenaka, Tanaka, Nagayama, Nakasone, Hasegawa, Moriyama, Fukuhara, Ue, and Higa are accepted by Japanese authorities but have not appeared in a Guinness Edition that I have read. Kawamoto has been accepted by Japanese scholars but was never shown as Guinness Japanese recordholder, although she would have been.

Kitai, Okuhara, Ishiguro, Yashiro, Tanabe, Oikawa, Chuganji, Kawate, Ichikawa, Taba, Koga, Kitagawa, Sugiyama, and Koyama are on a list from Japanese records compiled by Yasuhiko Saito. Chuganji has been accepted by Guinness. An unclear number of additional Japanese cases are considered documented but insufficient particulars are known to list them. In some cases even names are not available. Most such cases are under 111, but the oldest is Hide Ohira, born September 15, 1880, alive September 1994, dead by July 1995.

Japanese records apparently acknowledge Yaso Kobayashi (March 2,1846 -- May 29, 1964), but she was never accepted by Guinness; Guinness did not recognize Jubee Nakamura (June 10,1852 May 4, 1969).

Kinase is accepted based on Japanese and American records.

Batariu was accepted by Romanian authorities;

Teillet, Perignon, Vellard, Chabanny, Fourcade, Delhom, Dumaine, Bremont, Faron, Esnault, Roux, Baudouin, Petit,Colas, Renaud, Hemery, Campistron, LaFaye, Daigneau, Jourdan, Hutin, Dormois, Sadron, Fleury, Haye, Soboul by French;

Jespersen by Danish;

Riudavets by Spanish;

Sanna, Todde, Frau, Fumarola by Italian;

Smith-Johannsen, Svehaug, and Svisdal by Norwegian authorities.

Cleggett is included based on a genealogist's family reconstruction apparently from Australian records. Cock and Mears are authenticated based on Australian birth and marriage records; Yeomans likewise and also on death record; Correll on birth and death records. M. Hurley is authenticated based on correlations between several Australian family records.

Vietoris is accepted by Austrian authorities, and is a mathematician of some renown.

Beland, Munce, Thompson, Morton, Rollock, L. Ross, Lyman, McCague, Bibeault, Vigneault, Despars, Lauzon, Ouellet, Macdonald, Saulnier, Bertrand, and Marinier are accepted based on Canadian records.

Ives is accepted based on English birth and military records and Canadian death records; Schaffner on Canadian birth records and United States death records.

Booth's birth is recorded in New Zealand. Some sources give her maiden name as Davis.

Van Dam is accepted by the Dutch authorities, as are Hendrikse, van Dommelen, Roelinga, and Flower, who unlike other Dutch listees apparently never even made Dutch Editions of Guinness.Van Andel, Schellevis, and Bos are also accepted by Dutch authorities.

Van Sprengel, Casteur, Ververs, and De Ruyver were accepted by Belgian authorities, as is DeRoover; Van Sprengel broke the country's Guinness record while they still printed tables, but was ignored (we are not sure if they questioned her authenticity or were simply unaware).

Estella Jones, doubted by the Social Security Administration, has been said to be accepted by The Georgia Centenarian Study but they disavow this; they recognize McDaniel Foote, Floyd*, Spencer, J. Williams, I. Williams, Anna Williams, Wilson*, Bookout, Vanderkarr, C. Phillips*, A. Phillips, L. Phillips, Morrison, Blackistone, Neu, Bruder, Harlan, L. Jones, Katherine Jones, Maud Jones, Margaret Jones, S. Day, Spooner, Nash, Wilcox, Bloodsworth, Bay*, Pandazes, I. Turner, Bettencourt, L. Bruss,A. Bruss, Estella Foster, Edith Foster, Jobe, Cawthorne, Keeney, W. Harris, A. Harris, Joe Thomas, Wolcott, Schmidt, J. Frank*, I. Frank, L. Hart, Keller, Broyles, McCord, Bossong, Watson, Callahan, Nutt, G. Scott, Samuel, Cheney, Burnett, Richey, Grundman, Ford, K. Snyder, Emanuel, Bruneau, Cottrell, Cote, M. Livingston, L. Livingston, Dunning, Savage, Garcia, Fulmer, O. Matthews, M. Matthews, Bushey, Land, Sagendorph, Bodie, Aiken, Lewis, Dunlap, Hiehle, Humphrey, Alligier, Wiggins, Mayer, M. Ross, Huber, Frazier, Wriggle, Brownell, Spickard, Shively, Ryan, Magner, May, Robeson, K. Brown, A. Brown, Viar, Pfeiffer, Burress, Harrison, Zackry, Bennett, Bailes, Potts, Carlson, I. Smith, J. Smith, Sanders, Sartori, M. Johnson, N. Johnson, J. Johnson, E. Johnson, Carrier, Lazenby, Snow, Solum, Heller, North, E. Norris, Osgood, Fillebrown, Evinger, Spratt, Long, B. Cole, O'Sullivan, Sather, Decker, Curren, Stout, Lowe, Shebanek, Freehling, Bullington, Kirschbaum, Markle, Prata, Norwood, Barney, Varnum, Fisher, Bowden, Keen, Ellis, Wickens, Lambropoulos, Sims, Sloat, Page, Neidig, Dehay, Parks, Parker, O'Rourke, Greenwald, Minnie Davenport, Kingsbury, Flathers, Satchell, Foster , Bassich, Pike, Richards, Spyker, Cone, Saggs, Richardson, Nelson, Pautz, Freeman, Ricks, MacLachlan, O'Hern, Wormer, King, Sanderlin, Bechtoldt, Ragland, Redwine, Strother, Annand, F. Miller, Wilkerson, Burford, Roberts, C. Davis, B. Davis, Sgroi, Godfrey, Trueblood, Payne, Murdock, Barckley, Waldern, Shumate, Delfino, Laplace, M. Carpenter, Rooker, Johns, Nickens, Kelley, Larue, Athmann, Stewart, Emerson, Hamilton, Fiore, DeArroyo, Coffin, Rodgers, Rittenhouse, Moore, Tapley, Ray, A. Rust, and Zeilman are from a survey of United States records.
__________________________________________________________________
In the asterisked (*) cases the precise death dates are believed to have been possibly manufactured as public records only give month of death and the date provided seems assumed. Additional precise dates may be less obviously manufactured... A significant number of the pre-1989 deaths among these do not have exact death dates recorded in the files from which the survey drew.
__________________________________________________________________

Grahn, Lindahl, Moberg, E. Johansson, Eriksson, Jenny Karlsson, and Engberg are accepted by the Swedish authorities, specifically respected by Guinness. Silverdahl was born and married in Sweden, and emigrated to the United States where she eventually died. Svensson was born in Denmark, and moved to Sweden with her age accepted there. Holcomb was initially submitted to the list maintainer by a family member, and the Guinness Book subsequently authenticated him, regarding him as the oldest authenticated man in the world as of May 2000. In late July they said they "expected to formally recognize" Todde "by Autumn," but this had not been completed as of early November. Apparently it was by December. Fred Hale is enrolled in the New England Centenarian Study, and a family member has cited sufficient documentation to our list maintainer.

A family member for Maud Farris Luse has likewise provided documentation, and she was subsequently accepted by Guinness. A family member of Nellie Cross has provided sufficient documentation to our list maintainer. Geneva McNicholl's family has provided documentation as well.

Benkner is documented based on German birth records and United States census and marriage records. A. Smith is documented by family birth records, educational and marriage records citing age. Luther is documented based on birth, marriage, and family records.

Annie Jennings was accepted by UK authorities and reportedly (although possibly unpublished) by Guinness. Guinness later authenticated Morris (with incorrect birthdate ten days late), Bradley, and Hulmes.

Baker is accepted based on British baptismal and American immigration, marriage, and census records; Guinness noted her based on only a subset of these as not fully authenticated.

Clawson is accepted based on British birth and American marriage and death records.

Bittlebrun, DeMuth, Hinds, N. Rust, Goding, Kirchner, Bauman, Knezaczek, Kral, Metcalf, Mead,Rich, and M. Norris were validated by E. A. Kral, who completed the work on Baker.

Heeley, Morgan, L.B. Williams, Pannell, Empleton, Hammond, Brewster, Raw, Elsbury, Phillipson, Fewster, R. Hart, Kate Jones, Tuck, Comfort, Bannell Deuchar, Maunder, Townsend,Schrimshaw, Hampshire, German, Cleverdon, E. Day, Haward, Price, A. Carpenter, Beaumont, Poole, Pettit, Gilliam, Webley, Aspland, Gale, Elizabeth Jones, and Pearce all come from a table compiled by Roger Thatcher from British records.

Donn was authenticated by the Scottish authorities.


TABLE AA: CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF ALL SUPERCENTENARIANS with Nationality (provided by Robert Young, GRG Senior Claims Investigator of Atlanta, GA)

There may be some temporary discrepancies with Table A above, since these tables do tend to get updated at different times by different persons in other parts of the world, but ultimately, over time, both Tables A and AA should converge to become identical.
Legend for the Race (R) Column:

W = White; Color = BLUE
B = Black; Color = BLACK
H = Hispanic; Color = RED
O = Oriental; Color = GREEN

As of August 9, 2007, click for Table AA .

TABLE I: CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF ALL SUPERCENTENARIANS LISTED BY DATE OF DEATH (SORTED BY YEAR) (Table I likewise provided by Robert Young, GRG Senior Claims Investigator of Atlanta, GA). (Updated on August 29, 2010.)

December 15, 2007, Click for Table I.


TABLE B -- RANKED BY AGE

Click for Table B .


September 19, 2009; Click for Table BB the only Table that lists both Place-of-Birth and Place-of-Death for each person, as of July 28, 2007.


October 6, 2009; Click for a Table of top 200 List of All-Time Oldest.


RANKED BY AGE AND BY DECADE OF BIRTH

Click for period before the 1870s.
(Both the age of the persons listed and the reliability of the data seem lower than on later lists.)

Click for the decade of the 1870s.

Click for the decade of the 1880s.
This list looks older than ever and can still be strengthened by living Supercentenarians on and not yet on it. (Last updated October 5, 2001).

Click for the decade of the 1890s.
It's too early to consider this fourth table complete, since there will be entries filtering in or being revised over the next 20 years or more. Nevertheless, these are the one's we know about so far - 16, from a birth-interval equal to 1 in the 1880s from which only 6 are known, the decade of the1890s being much earlier in its discovery cycle.


TABLE C -- CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF OLDEST-LIVING PERSONS
(Listed Since 1955)

Click for Table C.

Click for Table CC as of September 11, 2007.

Click for Table CCC as of June 2, 2009.

Click for Table CCCC as of May 5, 2010.


TABLE D -- PROGRESSIVE LIST OF RECORD HOLDERS

(After eventual authentication, not as published initially)

Click for Table D.


TABLE F -- TABLE OF THE WORLD'S OLDEST MEN, SINCE 1973

March 8, 2007; Currently, there are 20 members.
Click for Table F.


Request: Updates on any and all cases, or any additions, would be greatly appreciated. -- Louis Epstein

For demographic research purposes, Mr. Louis Epstein has kindly provided us with a revised Table of the Emerging Population of SuperCentenarians ranging from [August 1966 - September 1995]. Click for Table on the SuperCentenarian Population Data to see how this population is increasing with time.

November 24, 2004; A revised version of the Table above was recently provided to us by Mr. Louis Epstein.


Mr. Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan was the previous Guinness record holder before Mrs. Calment surpassed him. As you can see from the Tables above, he died in February1986 at the age of 120.


December 1, 2000; We have just received a Table of British Oldest Persons who were the oldest persons alive in the UK at the time of their deaths. The Table was supplied by Louis Epstein (by way of Robert Young and Roger Thatcher as well as from The Guinness Book of Records and The Times (of London)).


September 20, 2001; Mr. Robert Young has now identified all of the Japanese Centenarian Record Holders for the time period [1978 - 2001], as derived from the Annual Japan Centenarian Report issued by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare. Click to open up the Japan Table and read Mr. Young's Explanatory Notes afterward.

October 6, 2001; Mr. Robert Young has now supplied us with a "Table of the Oldest Living Persons in Japan [1975 - 2001]." Click to open up this Japanese Table.

October 24, 2001; Mr. Robert Young has now sent us a "Table of the Top 20 Centenarians in Japan" as of September 30, 2001, as originally supplied by Mr. Hiko Tamashiro. Cllick to open up this latest Top 20 Japanese Table.


October 19, 2001; Mr. Young has now provided us with a Table of the Oldest Dutch Centenarians for the time period [1959 - 2001], as derived from one of our Dutch collaborators (Mr. Gert Jan Kuiper). Click to open up the Netherlands Table and read Mr. Young's Explanatory Notes afterward.


January 3, 2009; Mr. Young has now provided us with an updated Table of the Oldest American Centenarians for the time period [1976 - 2009]. Click to open up the 2009 American Table.

In 2002, Mr. Young provided us with the previous Table of the Oldest American Centenarians for the time period [1976 - 2002]. Click to review the 2002 American Table.

He as also provided us with Table of the Oldest American Claimants for this same time period.. Click to open up the American Claimants and read the four explanatory notes at the end.

Finally, he has provided us with a graph showing the disparity between the validated American Oldest Centenarians and the Claimants over the period [1971 - Present]. Click to open up the graph and read the notes at the end.


July 27, 2002; Mr. Young has now provided us with a list of U.S. recordholders by individual State. Some states, such as Delaware, don't have a record listed. That is because the population is likely too small to have produced a Supercentenarian, and/or the state did not exist 100 years ago (For example, Oklahoma was not opened to white settlement until 1889, and did not become a state until 1907). However, if someone were born in a territory that later became that state, they are listed for that state.

The U.S. record remains Mrs. Sarah Knauss at 119 years, 97 days.

This list includes all new possible cases from the May 2002 Conference. In the coming weeks, Mr. Young will issue updated tables that includes these new cases as well, which totaled over 200.


Oldest Americans by State

Click for the June 4, 2009 version of the Oldest Americans Table for each U.S. State.

Click for the older May 31, 2007 version of the Oldest Americans Table for each U.S. State.

Click for the older May 16, 2003 version of the Oldest Americans Table for each U.S. State.


World's Oldest Claimants

December 15, 2007; Mr. Robert Young has now compiled a Table of the 'World's Oldest Claimants' (Table J). The purpose of this particular Table is to demonstrate the wide variety of undocumented claims that come to us from all around the world and what our Table I above might look like if we were to lower our scientific standards (our Committee insists on three independent pieces of demographic documentation at least one of which dates back to the time of the claimant's birth) to self-promotional journalistic standards of news-reporting, which obviously focuses on human-interest stories that may or may not be valid but do sell newspapers or consume commercial air time. Indeed, after careful investigation, a good number of these claims have subsequently been demonstrated to be false. Other claims may never reach our standards and shall remain perpetually in limbo. Others may indeed be true and will someday be validated as new evidence comes to light. Click for Table J.


September 25, 2007; Mr. Robert Young has now completed another new Table which contains all the Oldest Validated Centenarians by Year in history from 1685 to the present time. For reference, we will name it Table K.


TABLES L -- SUPERCENTENARIAN TABLES BY NATIONALITY

December 20, 2007; Mr. Robert Young of Atlanta, GA is planning to provide us with full set of Tables (collectively designated Table L) that index Supercentenarians chronologically by nationality. The first 11 National Tables in this series are the following:

Canada
USA
UK
Germany
The Netherlands
France
Italy
Spain
Portugal
Japan
China


November 30, 2002; Click for a TABLE of 112 Year Olds or Older, Indexed by Country-of-Origin and then by order of National Recordholder's age. [ Note: Immigrants are covered separately from birth-and-death nationals.] This Table was prepared by Mr. Louis Epstein of New York.


TABLE G -- GRG TABLE OF FALSE AND EXAGGERATED CLAIMS

Mr. Robert Young of Atlanta, Georgia writes, "I am now aware that the question of why so many birth-record documents are necessary? is one of the most-often asked by family members of candidate Supercentenarians." This, Table G is provided to help us to answer why such rigorous documentation is needed. It lists more than 40 cases for which the claimed age of the individual was subsequently found to be overstated, while that the actual age turned out to be anywhere from one year less to 30 or more years less than the age claimed! Conversely, there is only one case we currently know of for which the real age turned out to be higher than the claimed age -- Mrs. Grace Clawson. This suggests that relatives and others pushing a claim tend to err on the side of exaggeration. We have identified several cases of blatant financial self-interest by tourist agencies in small countries who hoped to encourage visitors. Furthermore,

1. Table G reveals that while African-American cases were more likely to be exaggerated, other races, from Caucasian to American Indian to Oriental Asian, are not immune to this tendency to overstate ages. The real problem of exaggeration is that it distorts the data and hides the true oldest individuals, as someone who really is 110 or more is not likely to outlive someone who is 95 but who claims to be 120 years old.

2. It should be noted that, although most exaggerators were still over 90 years old; a majority of them were over 100. Thus, simply judging by one's appearance in a photograph is clearly insufficient, even though, in the more extreme cases, it may have been obvious the person was not close to the age being claimed.

As of July 31, 2007, Click for Table G .

This Table is the culmination of many years of demographic research, and we plan to update it periodically. The first Edition was posted on November 27, 2002, the second was posted on February 23, 2003, and the third was posted on April 1, 2007.


As of July 24, 2004, Click for Table H of the first Validated Supercentenarian indexed by Country-of-Birth, prepared by Robert Young and Louis Epstein for publication at the request of Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Editor-in-Chief of one of our newest journals entitled, Rejuvenation Research.


February 5, 2009; Click for Table M , the Numbers of Supercentenarians as Summarized by Nationality (as of June 13, 2007).

Editorial Note: The GRG databases on Supercentenarians only began in 1998 and should be viewed as "under construction." With the possible exception of smaller European nations such as Belgium that track every centenarian in their nation, we expect the numbers to rise as more cases are added, even for leaders such as the U.S., Japan, and France. Data sources from many nations do not yet extend over a 110+ year period, and thus some nations such as China, which are very likely to have true Supercentenarians, do not yet have the means to document proof-of-birth from 110+ years ago. Hopefully, this will change in the coming decades as record keeping improves throughout the world.

Our goal here is not to list every possible Supercentenarian but to show where the data we have comes from, and to produce a large, statistically accurate data set, that allows researchers to understand that Supercentenarians are simply the top of a broad population pyramid. In the United States for the year 2000, for example, the Census counted about 1 million persons 90 or older. Of these, 5 percent or 50,454 were 100 or older, and of these, only an estimated 50 (1/1,000th of centenarians) were 110 or older. Even with this scale, however, the oldest person in America at the time was only 114, meaning that none of the 50 were 115 or older. The medical/biological implications for this observation are not well understood, which is why additional autopsies of the world's oldest people is so important.

Finally, a country ranking high in Table M (especially when recalculated on a per capita basis) should not be interpreted as giving that particular country a "unique longevity advantage." Given the rigorous GRG standards for age validation, it is more likely to be an artifact of good record keeping.


October 10, 2007; It has come to our attention that Dr. James Bedford, M.D., b. 1893, is arguably the oldest Supercentenarian in Cryonic Suspension. So, as far as our cryonics colleagues are aware, no legally-living person who is currently signed up for suspension was born before him (they would, of course, need to be 114 yo or older), and unless someone older than 114 signs up soon (it goes up one year per year, of course), Dr. Bedford will forever hold this record -- until he was thawed, of course. If he were successfully reanimated, we would have to add him to Table E as a living Supercentenarian. Of course, in principle, one could be frozen more than once, if the secret to "escape velocity" had not yet been achieved by this time. Of course, all of this is speculation until it has been demonstrated at least once.


Our call for help...



Mr. Robert Douglas Young of Atlanta, Georgia
Click on Mr. Robert Young's Photo to E-mail him if you believe that you can help us in identifying any additional centenarians that you feel should be on any one of the above tables that we may have omitted.


Here are pictures of some of the demographers who collaborate regularly on maintaining our various tables in an up to date fashion...

Dr. Jean-Marie Robine
Dr. Jean-Marie Robine of France
Gert-Jan Kuiper (L) and Roger Thatcher
(R)
Gert-Jan Kuiper of the Netherlands (L) and Roger Thatcher of England (R).

Note: All of the above photos were taken at the Rostock, Germany meeting that took place on June 16th and 17th, 2000.

October 11, 2007; Another long-time collaborator is...
Bart Versieck, Belgium
Mr. Bart Versieck of Belgium.