Oldest Person in the World: Verified Records & Current Holder

The verified record for human longevity stands at 122 years 164 days — held by Jeanne Calment of France since 1997. As of April 2025, the current title belongs to Ethel Caterham, a British woman who turned 116 that same year, and whose age has been independently confirmed by both LongeviQuest and Guinness World Records.

Oldest verified ever: Jeanne Calment, 122 years 164 days · Current oldest living: Ethel Caterham, 116 years · Oldest verified man: Jiroemon Kimura, 116 years 54 days · Validation source: Guinness World Records · UK milestone: Ethel Caterham turns 116, Aug 2025

Who is officially the oldest person to ever live?

Jeanne Calment of France holds the record for the longest verified human lifespan. She was born on 21 February 1875 in Arles and died on 4 August 1997, reaching 122 years and 164 days (Guinness World Records). No documented case has surpassed that figure, despite countless claims of older ages floating online.

Jeanne Calment’s record

Calment’s age is backed by multiple independent verification methods: birth certificates, census records, and cross-referenced documentation from French civil authorities. Guinness World Records authenticated her case with what the organization calls “full documentation” — a standard that requires more than a family’s say-so. The thoroughness matters because Calment’s record sits near the biological limits researchers believe the human body can sustain. Studies on cellular aging suggest 122 years approaches what some call the “maximum lifespan potential” for Homo sapiens.

Verification process

Organizations like the Gerontology Research Group, LongeviQuest, and Guinness World Records require specific documentation before recognizing a supercentenarian (someone over 110). Acceptable records include birth certificates, baptismal records, or official census entries. Without primary-source documentation, a claimed age gets filed under “unverified claims” — a category that includes most viral stories about 150- or 200-year-old people.

Who is the oldest living person in the world?

Ethel Caterham, born 21 August 1909 in Hampshire, England, is the current oldest verified living person (Guinness World Records). As of 1 April 2026, she was verified at 116 years 223 days old by LongeviQuest and Guinness World Records. She holds the titles of both oldest living woman and oldest living person overall.

Ethel Caterham details

Caterham lives in a nursing home in Lightwater, Surrey, UK. Born during the reign of Edward VII, she was the second of eight children (BBC Science Focus). Her older sister, Gladys Babilas, also had unusual longevity — she lived to 104 years 78 days. When asked about her long life, Caterham has reportedly credited staying active and maintaining a positive outlook. As of August 2025, she had turned 116 years old.

Recent title changes

Before Caterham assumed the title, Inah Canabarro Lucas of Brazil held it. Canabarro Lucas died on 30 April 2025 at 116 years old (Gerontology Research Group), immediately elevating Caterham to the top spot. Wikipedia currently lists her age at 116 years 251 days, though Guinness records a slightly different count — a discrepancy that stems from different calculation methods and verification dates rather than conflicting facts.

Who is the oldest man who has ever lived?

The oldest verified man ever is Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, who lived to 116 years 54 days (born in 1897, died in 2013) (Wikipedia verified oldest people list). No documented male has surpassed that figure. The current oldest living man is João Marinho Neto of Brazil, verified at 113 years 206 days (Wikipedia verified oldest people list), with Guinness World Records confirming his status in November 2025 (Guinness World Records News oldest man confirmation).

Jiroemon Kimura record

Kimura’s longevity is remarkable not just for the total days but for the conditions he survived through — born before radio, living through two world wars and Japan’s industrial transformation. His record is backed by Japanese civil registration documents and corroborated by the Gerontology Research Group.

Other top men

Marinho Neto ranks 26th on the all-time longest-living men list. The gap between his 113 years and Kimura’s 116 years is not trivial — it represents roughly three additional years that no verified man has managed to add since 2013. Notably, the 100 oldest verified women have lived several years longer on average than the 100 oldest men (Wikipedia verified oldest people list), a pattern researchers attribute to a combination of biological and behavioral factors.

Has any human ever lived to be 200 years old?

No verified case exists of any human living to 200 years. The maximum documented lifespan is Calment’s 122 years 164 days, and that record has stood since 1997 despite countless unverified claims to the contrary. When viral posts claim someone “lived to 300 years” or cite biblical figures as literal ages, they are conflating mythology with documentation.

Longevity myths

Claims about biblical figures like Methuselah (said to have lived 969 years) and scattered stories of “immortal” elders across cultures belong to a different category than verified records. These narratives predate systematic birth documentation by millennia. Modern verification bodies require contemporaneous records — a birth certificate, a census entry, an official registry — not folklore or family tradition.

Unverified claims

The Gerontology Research Group maintains an “unverified” list alongside its verified rankings. These include cases where documentation is absent, conflicting, or demonstrably falsified. The burden of proof for a supercentenarian claim is high precisely because the biological bar is real — and most stories that sound too extraordinary to be true fall short of it.

What about claims of 142 or 157 year olds?

Specific viral claims of a 142-year-old Saudi man who reportedly died in 2025 and a persistent online story about a 157-year-old man (sometimes associated with the name “Zaro Aga”) lack verifiable documentation. They circulate periodically, resurface in social media posts, and are cited as “proof” that official records underestimate true lifespans — but without primary-source verification, they remain unverified, not secretly true.

Saudi 142-year claim

Reports of a Saudi man claimed to be 142 years old at death surfaced in news aggregations but lacked the birth certificates or civil registry entries that Guinness and LongeviQuest require for verification. The claim spread as “news” but failed the evidentiary standard applied to every recognized supercentenarian.

157-year man rumors

The 157-year figure has no credible documentation backing it. Online mentions of this claim typically lack named sources, dates, or verifiable identities — the hallmarks of an unverified rumor rather than a suppressed fact. Gerald K. “Zaro Aga” was a figure sometimes cited in early 20th-century longevity discussions, but his claimed age was never substantiated to modern standards.