Oldest People

''Editor's note: the below article is currently out-of-date. It may be edited (repaired) in the future. Until then, please view the below material as "archival".''

The following tables list only the oldest validated people in ordinal rank, such as oldest person or oldest man. For centenarians known for anything other than their extreme age, see list of centenarians.

The longest unambiguously documented lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997), who died aged 122 years, 164 days. She met Vincent van Gogh at age 14. This led to her being noticed by the media in 1988, at age 113. Subsequent investigation found that her life was documented in the records of her native city of Arles beyond reasonable question. More evidence (over 25 documents) for the Calment case has been produced than for almost any other supercentenarian case, which makes her case a gold standard among the oldest people recordholders. The oldest verified man ever is Jiroemon Kimura of Japan (1897–2013) who lived to 116 years, 54 days old.

Oldest living people
See Oldest living people

World's Oldest Person Titleholders (as of 2008)
The following is a list of the people who have held the title of oldest recognized person in the world since 1955 (the year Guinness Records began). This list does not reflect the original lists, but is instead retroactive - for example, the Betsy Baker case was not independently verified until the 2000s.

Followed by Maria de Jesus (dos Santos) and Gertrude Baines. The longest consecutive time with the title of World's Oldest Person held was by Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan for 3384 days from November 16, 1976 to February 21, 1986. The shortest consecutive time was by Emma Tillman of the United States for 4 days from January 24, 2007 to January 28, 2007. The average length of time served as World's Oldest Person for the 37 people following Betsy Baker (prior to Edna Parker) has been approximately 511.6 days. (This figure would drop to 431.8 days if Izumi were not included in the statistic). The country with the most people on the list is the United States with 12 (14 including Puerto Rico), followed by the United Kingdom with 9, and Japan with 6. This graph represents the list of people who have held the record as the the oldest living person of which there is data, each person is represented by a single grey dot placed in the place of their final age and the date of when it was. The red circles represent the list of people who have progessively become the oldest people in history. The blue placemark indicates the recent oldest person in the world, Edna Parker. The case of Shigechiyo Izumi is disputed, therefore, all people in his supposed record time period are counted, including Mathew Beard. However, if his case was proven, then he would be counted and all people under him would be erased.

Oldest living men (since 1961)
Note: Guinness World Records has only maintained the category of oldest living man intermittently over the years, not establishing it permanently until the year 2000. Persons listed prior to 2000 may be based on an historical reconstruction.

Followed by Henry Allingham and Walter Breuning. The longest consecutive time with the title of World's Oldest Man held was by Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan for 4,367 days from March 9, 1974 to February 21, 1986. The shortest consecutive time was by Henri Perignon of France for 8 days from June 10, 1990 to June 18, 1990. The country with the most people on the list is the United States with 9, followed by Japan with 4, and the United Kingdom with 3.

Oldest people ever (115+)
Misao Okawa has turned 115 on 5 March 2013.

Oldest validated people currently living (2013)
''Please note that approximately 90% of all supercentenarians are women. This list currently reflects that.''

Emigrant records (oldest first)
Note: Listed for countries where an emigrant lived longer than any lifelong resident. Some of these essentially moved from colonies back to their mother-country.

Gerontology and the verification of age claims
Gerontology involves the tracking of the longest-lived proven individuals as the bio-markers of the human life span. The study of gerontology is usually credited to Michel Eugène Chevreul, a French chemist who died in 1889, aged 102. In the early years of the twenty first century gerontology is benefiting from the improvements in record-keeping in the industrialized world from the latter part of the nineteenth century. As a result, verification standards have evolved and multiple independent documentary confirmations of birth-date are now required to substantiate a claim, rather than evidence deriving only from the claimant. For claims that have not been satisfactorily confirmed by Guinness World Records, considered the authority, see longevity claims.

Current trends in the lifespans of the oldest humans
The population and lifespans of the world's oldest people are continually increasing due to improvements in health care and lifestyle during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the increasing world population. Additionally, better record-keeping, both 100+ years ago and today, is increasing the percentage of the world's population whose age can be tracked and verified. This increase has been matched by efforts to harness this data. While in 1837 the oldest verified person was aged 108 years, it is now no longer unheard of for individuals, especially females, to have lived 110 years and more. The term supercentenarian has been coined to describe this emerging population group.