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Americans Are Primed to Own the Title of Oldest Person in the World

Meet the .00001 percent.
The politics of 1904. Image: Wikimedia Commons

There are roughly 7.046 billion people alive today. Only 72 of them were also alive 110 years ago, the year Peter I was crowned king of Serbia (and long enough ago that king of Serbia was a position with sway in international affairs). I say “only 72” because that's like .00001 percent of the population, but it's also probably the largest that the population of supercentenarians has ever been.

As the world population gets older, and the highs reach unprecedented heights, a governing body has emerged to track and verify who holds the title of oldest person alive, and in order to make sure that no one is left out of the Age Race, they've got a website.

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Smithsonian laid out how the Gerontology Research Group came to be the record keepers of the world's 110 and up division. In 1990, a UCLA lecturer in the department of chemistry and biochemistry named L. Stephen Coles co-founded the group, aiming to improve on the previous system of research groups, individual companies, and hobbyists tracking the world's oldest people.

In addition to tracking and updating the list of supercentenarians, people 110 years old and up, the Gerontology Research Group is exploring the science of living longer than a century. As Rachel Nuwer wrote in Smithsonian:

Expert volunteers with the organization conduct extensive interviews with the people on the list, taking blood samples for DNA analysis from those who are willing. Ultimately, the group’s goal is to use such data to design drugs that will slow down the aging process itself, though such breakthroughs—if even possible—are likely years away.

Glancing over the last few people to hold the title of “world's oldest,” Motherboard colleague Becky Ferreira pointed out that it's just like competitive hot dog eating: a showdown between America and Japan.

At 116, Misao Okawa has been the oldest living person since January of last year, when Koto Okubo passed and gave her the title. When the 111-year-old (and, it's worth noting, Poland-born) Alexander Imich died in New York in June, his mantle of world's oldest man passed to Sakari Momoi of Japan, where the world's second-oldest man also lives.

But four of the oldest five people on the supercentenarian list are from the US. In fact, with 10 of the top 15, the odds look good that the oldest person alive will be living in America fairly often in the near future.

Still, the title of the verified oldest person ever still belongs to Jeanne Calment, a Frenchwoman who was 14 when they started building the Eiffel Tower, and died in 1997 at the age of 122. She claimed that she rode her bike until she was 100, and smoked until she was 117.

The world's oldest two people both just passed 116, so its probably time for them to quit smoking if they haven't yet—assuming they want to make a seven-year push for all-time longest life.