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Supercentenarian

A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated) is someone who has reached the age of 110 years or more, something achieved by only one among hundreds of centenarians. In turn, only about one supercentenarian in fifteen lives to turn 114.

Table of contents
1 History
2 Timeline of oldest-living people
3 Among the oldest ever
4 Among the oldest living,
5 Notably early and long-lived among supercentenarians
6 Reference

History

While claims of extreme age have persisted from the earliest times in history, the earliest supercentenarian who has substantial scholarly acceptance is Geert Adriaans Boomgaard, who was born in Groningen, Netherlands, September 21, 1788, and died there February 3, 1899.

Over six hundred and fifty supercentenarians have been documented in history, and this is doubtless a fraction of the number who have really lived, but the majority of claims to this age one finds recorded do not have sufficient documentary support to be regarded as validated. This is slowly changing as those born after birth registration was standardized in more countries and parts of countries attain supercentenarian age.

The oldest documented supercentenarian is Jeanne Calment (1875-1997). While her stories of meeting Vincent Van Gogh or attending the 1885 funeral of Victor Hugo might have been embroidered, her life was documented in the records of her native city of Arles, France, beyond reasonable question.

The Guinness Book of World Records in 1978 accepted the age claim of Shigechiyo Izumi, born June 29, 1865, and died February 21, 1986 (the 111th birthday of Jeanne Calment!). However, there is still doubt as to whether he was wrongly conflated with a brother who died young.

For supercentenarians known for anything other than their extreme age, see the centenarians article. Here are a list of other particularly aged individuals:

Timeline of oldest-living people

The following is a list of the oldest people in the world since 1991 and the period for which they were the titleholder:

Oldest living man

Among the oldest ever

Among the oldest living,

Notably early and long-lived among supercentenarians

Reference