The era of the centenarians.
The group of people 100 years old or older is the group that has grown the most in our population: it has increased fivefold in the last 20 years.
Blowing out 100 candles on one’s birthday, something exceptional in the past, is becoming increasingly common.
Nowadays in Spain about 500 people cross the 100-year-old threshold every month, most of them being women.
Which region has the largest population of centenarians?
Map of centenarians in Spain.
Year 2020
Total number of people 100 years old or older
12,538
Testimonies
Learn about the life expectancy of some of the centenarians in our country.
Castile and León
Andalusia
Galicia
Around year 2050
in Spain, about 1000
people will
pass this mark
every month
Most centenarians are women and are between 100
and 105 years old:
The oldest documented person was Jeanne Calment, a French women who turned 122 years old and died in 1997.
The oldest Spanish person was Ana Vela, who turned 116 years old and died in December 2017.
The oldest Spanish man to date was Joan Riudavets. He died in 2004 at 114 years old.
Francisco Núñez Olivera, from Extremadura, turned 113 years old in December 2017. He died in January 2018.
This episode analyses the future that awaits us with the increase in life expectancy, as well as how reach 100 years old healthy and the keys to centenary longevity, through the story of Purificación Ramos and thanks to Xesús Lage, sociologist and expert in ageing at the Department of Sociology at Universidad de Vigo.
Acknowledgements:
Xesús Lage and Purificación Ramos.
What causes the imbalances in the rates of centenarians in Spain?
The imbalances in the rates of centenarians in Spain can be explained by the degree of social development, cultural context, and environmental and territorial factors, together with geographic factors that are less known and analysed than those known as “individual factors of longevity”. Without a doubt, factors of this type, which have a hereditary or genetic component, have a role but would be insufficient without the influence of geographical and environmental factors and vice versa.
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