Since the passing of Harry Patch and Henry Allingham last year – the last two remaining British military veterans of the First World War – I’ve become rather interested in the subject of Supercentenarians, that is, people who’ve lived to the age of 110 years or more. It’s more of a fascination, I suppose; there’s something truly remarkable about extreme longevity to this degree.

There are estimated to be around 350-450 Supercentenarians living around the world at present, though there’s no actual proof of this. An organisation called the Gerontology Research Group has correspondents dotted around the globe who attempt to verify known claims of people to be aged 110 or more. The number of verified living SCs globally hovers at between 75 and 90 during an average year; as you can imagine, the list diminishes quite rapidly due to the frailness of these individuals, but new entrants also join the list fairly regularly due to both the increasing number of people living to extreme old age these days, and also those who have already reached 110 or more but who’ve only just been formally verified.

The really interesting thing about this subject is the statistics which it produces. For example, the ratio of female to male members of this elite ‘club’ is always far outweighed to the former; there are currently 90 verified SCs around the world, 85 of them being female and only 5 male. There are also certain countries which produce more SCs than others; Japan is nearly always at the top of the list, followed by the US, Italy and the UK. Japan is well know for having the longest life expectancy of any country in the World, and this is easily demonstrated within the SC statistics when you consider that there are currently 25 Japanese SCs out of a population of around 127 million, whilst there are 24 SCs in the USA with a population of around 308 million.

The verified oldest living person in the world is currently Eunice Sanborn of the US who is 114 years and 156 days old. It has to be said that she’s not in terribly good shape and is constantly on oxygen. However, the varying state of health between different SCs is ably demonstrated by Walter Breuning, another US citizen who’s currently the world’s oldest verified living man at 114 years and 93 days. Not only is it incredible that Walter is still alive given the extremely low number of male SCs living at present, he’s an exceptional individual in that he’s in excellent health, still walks albeit with the aid of a wheeled frame, still occasionally ventures outside on his own mobility scooter, and is not on any recurring medication other than taking an asprin a day which he credits as being one of the reasons he’s lived for so long. He’s also in complete control of his faculties, gives regular interview to the media and entertains a regular stream of visitors to the retirement home where he lives.

Another interesting statistic is that a number of SCs who’ve lived to be around 113/114 or more never had any children, something which researchers have identified as a biological reason for this kind of extreme longevity. This is ably demonstrated by the oldest verified person ever, Jeanne Calment of France, who lived to the astonishing age of 122 years and 164 days from 1875 until 1997. She never had any children and indeed lived a relatively stress free and serene life having been born to a middle class family and eventually married a wealthy shop owner which meant she never had to work. Her incredibly longevity has been put down to genetics; she smoked until she was 117 years old and enjoyed a typical French diet which wasn’t short of fatty foods. The most amusing aspect of her later life was that in 1965, aged 90 years and with no heirs, she signed a deal to sell her apartment to a lawyer on a contingency contract. The lawyer, then aged 47, agreed to pay her a monthly sum of 2,500 francs until she died. He ended up paying Calment the equivalent of more than $180,000, which was more than double the apartment's value. After his death at the age of 77 in 1995, his widow continued the payments until Calment's death.

It’s likely that the number of SCs will rise gradually over the coming years, though there’s no visible sign that the maximum age will rise with it. Cases like Jeanne Calment are almost unique and it’s unlikely we’ll see anyone reach that amazing age for a long time yet.