08.15.13
And Then There Were Eight
Back in February, I posted a list of living people born in the 1800s. There were twelve. Now, six months later, we’re down to eight! As one of my coworkers says, there seems to be a conspiracy where the oldest person in the world keeps dying.
| # | Name | Sex | Birth date | Age | Residence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | 1897 April 19 | 116y 54d | Japan | ||
| 1 | Misao Okawa | F | 1898 March 5 | 115y 163d | Japan |
| F | 1899 April 3 | 113y 364d | Italy | ||
| F | 1899 April 5 | 113y 350d | United States | ||
| 2 | Jeralean Talley | F | 1899 May 23 | 114y 84d | United States |
| 3 | Susannah Jones | F | 1899 July 6 | 114y 40d | United States |
| 4 | Bernice Madigan | F | 1899 July 24 | 114y 22d | United States |
| 5 | Soledad Mexia | F | 1899 August 13 | 114y 2d | United States |
| 6 | Naomi Conner | F | 1899 August 30 | 113y 350d | United States |
| F | 1899 August 14 | 113y 301d | United States | ||
| F | 1899 Sept. 18 | 113y 272d | Japan | ||
| 7 | Emma Morano-Martinuzzi | F | 1899 Nov. 29 | 113y 259d | Italy |
| 8 | Grace Jones | F | 1899 Dec. 7 | 113y 251d | United Kingdom |
Naomi Conner is new to this list—perhaps she was “discovered” since February. As I mentioned in the previous post, it’s impossible to say when the 19th century will be “closed out”. If the usual probabilities play out, it’ll happen sometime in the next 2–3 years. But if any of these eight women turn out to be another Jeanne Calment, then it’ll be another ten.
danvk.org » How Many Living People Were Born in the 1800s? said,
August 15, 2013 at 5:24 am
[…] Update (August 2013): this list is down to eight. […]
erica dreisbach said,
August 21, 2013 at 2:08 pm
Love this ongoing coverage! Thanks for the update :)
What do you think are the odds of /unknown/ 19th century people in other long-lived geographic areas like Sardinia? Or anywhere, actually? How good are we at knowing this kind of dicrete global information?
danvk said,
August 21, 2013 at 4:17 pm
Great question! The small list of countries in this list makes me very suspicious. With their billions of people, surely there are some very elderly individuals in China and India. But the birth records aren’t so great there, so they don’t make the “official” list.