According to a recent study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, humans can live up to 130 years if their health and living conditions are enhanced. The researchers found that after the age of 108, the odds of living another year are 50-50. However, with better living circumstances, people could live to be 130 years old before 2100.
“There is strong evidence of an upper limit to the human lifespan of around 130 years,” the researcher said.
“This does not mean such ages will be reached sometime soon, as the probability equals that of seeing heads on 20 consecutive tosses of a coin.”
“This event has a probability of less than one in a million and is highly unlikely to occur soon, though the increasing number of supercentenarians makes it possible that the maximum reported age at death will rise to 130 years during the present century,” the study says.
According to the study’s conclusions, human longevity has no bounds. Furthermore, previous statistical analyses of elderly datasets have found similar results.
The team used the International Database on Longevity, which features over 1,100 supercentenarians from 13 nations, as a preliminary step for their study. The researchers then examined data from Italy between January 2009 to December 2015 on all adults over 105.
The researchers observed that when more people reach supercentenarian status, the chances of becoming that one in a million increase.
Jeanne Calment, a Frenchwoman, holds the record for being the world’s oldest person, has died in 1997 at the confirmed age of 122. Calment’s actual age was the subject of some controversy, with suspected fraud, but an analysis of the data in 2019 claimed that it verified her age.
Kane Tanaka of Japan, 118 years old, is the world’s oldest verified alive individual.