Longevity claims

Longevity claims are cases of asserted human longevity that have no evidence or have partial evidence. Those asserting lifespans of 110 years or more are generally referred by as supercentenarians. Many have no available evidence or are backed by partial evidence. Cases where longevity has been fully verified, according to modern standards of longevity research, are reflected in an established list of supercentenarians based on the work of organizations such as the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) or Guinness World Records. This article lists living claims greater than that of the oldest living person whose age has been independently verified, Spanish woman Maria Branyas, aged 115 years, 329 days, and deceased claims greater than that of the oldest person ever whose age has been verified, French woman Jeanne Calment, who died at the age of 122 years and 164 days.
Categorization
Guinness World Records from its inception in 1955, began keeping a list of oldest living people. To be in the list, a supercentenarian needs to have at least 3 verified documents.
Verified cases
The oldest person verified by modern standards, and the only person with evidence to have lived to be at least 120 years of age, is French woman Jeanne Calment (21 February 1875 - 4 August 1997), aged 122 years and 164 days.
The oldest man verified by modern standards, and the only man with undisputed evidence to have lived to be over 115, is Japanese man Jiroemon Kimura (19 April 1897 - 12 June 2013), aged 116 years and 54 days.
The oldest verified living person is Spanish-American born woman Maria Branyas, born 4 March 1907, aged 115 years, 329 days.
Lucy Hannah, previously regarded as having reached age 117, had her verification removed in 2020 following the discovery of additional documents.
In numerous editions from the 1960s through the 1980s, Guinness stated that
No single subject is more obscured by vanity, deceit, falsehood, and deliberate fraud than the extremes of human longevity.
Proximate records and late-life claims
Maggie Barnes (1882/1880/1881-1998) claimed to be 117 at her death on January 19 1998. Inconsistent records claim that she was a year younger, 6 March 1882 is the latest, but possibly a year earlier.
Late-life claims
Hanna Barysevich: Barysevich claimed to have been 118. This can be neither verified nor disproven from Belarus records. The claim is demographically possible but incompletely verified.
Possible claims
Pasikhat Dzhukalaeva: In 2004, The Moscow Times reported that Dzhukalayeva, of Chechnya, claimed to have been born in 1881 (age 122). The claim is possible but incompletely verified. Her death has not been reported since that time, so no age above 122 has been verifiably claimed.
Other late-life claims
Susie Brunson: Her obituaries appear in Star-News newspaper and The New York Times. Her family claimed that she was born 25 December 1870 and lived to age 123, dying in late November 1994.
Reports with complete date of birth
These are lists of people whose lifespans remain unverified by proximate records, including both modern (since 1955). which an individual's supercentenarian lifespan is not (yet) backed by records sufficient to the standards of modern longevity research are listed as unverified. They may be factually true, even though records do not exist (or have not yet been found), so such lists include these grey-area cases.
Past
These are deceased cl
Longevity myths
Longevity myths are traditions about long-lived people (generally supercentenarians), either as individuals or groups of people, and practices that have been believed to confer longevity, but which current scientific evidence does not support, nor the reasons for the claims. While literal interpretations of such myths may appear to indicate extraordinarily long lifespans, many scholars believe such figures may be the result of incorrect translations of number systems through various languages, coupled along with the cultural and symbolic significance of certain numbers.
Outside of mythology, the record for the maximum verified lifespan in the modern world is years for women (Jeanne Calment) and 116 years for men (Jiroemon Kimura). Some scientists estimate that in case of the most ideal conditions people can live up to 127 years.