Population & Societies - Living beyond age 105: When the improbable becomes reality

From the were around 100 in France in 1900, and only twice as many in biblical patriarchs to the centenarians of the Andes or the 1950, but by 1970 there were more than 1,000, and in the year Caucasus, there have always been mythical narratives of 2000 more than 8,000. [...] This impressive ratio is entirely due to excess male reflect a drop in the probability of reaching age 105, but rath- mortality, which operates throughout the lifespan, particular- er the arrival at this age of the smaller cohorts born during the ly at working ages, decreasing the share of males as the First World War. [...] At the depart- nally elderly people are often reported in the press and other ment level in metropolitan France, the ratio of deceased media, these sources are unreliable because the likelihood of reporting increases with age, thus creating upward bias supercentenarians to the total population ranges from 0 to 17 in the age structure of these deaths. [...] exhaustive sources must therefore undergo a strict age Both the increase in the number of supercentenarians in validation procedure to check that the date of birth and identifying information on the death certificate are consistent recent years and the predominance of women at these ages with those on the birth certificate. [...] In (excluding Mayotte) between 1978 and 2022 in the RNIPP, coming years, as the quantity of reliable data in the IDL increas- 32 occurred in the overseas departments, the vast majority (29) in Guadeloupe and Martinique.