The guide

How long can a human live?

By GyroscopeUpdated November 15, 202614 sources

The longest anyone has been shown to live is 122 years and 164 days. For the rest of us, the useful numbers are lower and better than most people think. By the 2024 US death rates, the most common age to die is 89 for women and 87 for men, and about 3 in 100 girls born today would reach 100.

People make two opposite mistakes here. Some treat the 79 in the news as a deadline, as if a 75-year-old had four years left. Others see headlines about living to 150 and think aging is about to be solved. The first is off by years for any adult, and nobody has shown the second is possible.

A picture from daily life

Think of a marathon. The world record is about two hours, and most people who finish take far longer. The record tells you what one human body could do once. The typical finish tells you what to train for. Lifespan works the same way. Calment’s 122 is the record, and the 80s and 90s are where most people finish.

Who has lived the longest?

Jeanne Calment of Arles, in the south of France, born on 21 February 1875. She died on 4 August 1997 at 122 years and 164 days, and her age has been checked more carefully than almost anyone’s. A 2019 claim that her daughter had taken her identity was answered the same year, and her record stands. What do people who reach 100 have in common? has the full story.

The oldest man on record is Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, who died on 12 June 2013 at 116 years and 54 days. As of November 2026, the oldest living person is Ethel Caterham of England, born on 21 August 1909, so 117. The oldest living man is João Marinho Neto of Brazil, born on 5 October 1912.

Is there a limit?

Scientists have argued about it for a decade. In 2016, Xiao Dong, Brandon Milholland and Jan Vijg looked at decades of survival data and the records of the world’s oldest people. Gains in survival got smaller after 100, and the oldest age at death had stopped rising in the 1990s. They put the usual maximum at about 115, with an absolute limit near 125, and the chance of anyone reaching 125 in a given year at under 1 in 10,000.

Two years later an Italian team studied 3,836 carefully checked Italians aged 105 and over. Their yearly death rate stopped climbing and stayed flat at about 47.5%, which suggests there’s no fixed wall. But a flat rate that high still works like one. Start with 1,000 people at 105, lose 47.5% of them each year, and on average the last one is gone by about 116.

Then Saul Justin Newman showed that age errors at a rate below 1 in 10,000 records are enough to make death rates look flat at the very top. Even the plateau may partly be bad paperwork, the same problem that haunts the blue zones.

Of 100 babies, how many reach each age?

Picture 100 babies born in the US today, and suppose the 2024 death rates held for their whole lives. Most of them are still around at 65. The crowd thins fastest in their 80s.

When do Americans die?

The average at birth is 81.4 for women and 76.5 for men. But the average isn’t where most deaths are. Deaths in childhood and middle age are less common, and each one pulls the average down by decades, so the peak sits years above it.

Why do the averages mislead?

Because they mostly track early deaths. In 1900, a newborn American could expect about 47 years, and that number is often quoted as if people grew old at 47. They didn’t. So many babies and children died that the average sank, while a woman who made it to 65 could expect to reach about 77.

Since then, the newborn’s number has risen by more than 30 years, mostly by saving children and young adults. The 65-year-old’s has risen by under 9.

Will you reach 100?

By the 2024 table, about 3 in 100 newborn girls and 1 in 100 boys would reach 100. At 65 the odds are a little better, 3.4% for women and 1.5% for men, since every birthday removes the chance of dying younger. About 101,000 Americans were 100 or older in 2024, and the Census Bureau projects about 422,000 by 2054.

A 2024 study by S. Jay Olshansky and colleagues looked at the longest-lived countries. At 2019 death rates, an average of 5.1% of girls and 1.8% of boys born there would reach 100, and the highest was Hong Kong, with 12.8% and 4.4%. They concluded that survival to 100 is unlikely to pass 15% for women and 5% for men this century.

How does the US compare?

Not well. Americans born in 2024 could expect 79.0 years, against 84.1 in Japan and an OECD average of 81.1 in 2023. The US ranked 30th of 38 OECD countries. Life expectancy by country has every country and why Americans die sooner.

Won’t science soon let us live to 150?

What does it mean for you?

The gap between the average and what’s possible is where your habits count. In the Harvard study of 123,219 health professionals, women with five healthy habits at 50 could expect another 43.1 years, which takes them to about 93. Men with all five could expect 37.6 more. Those are the years between the 79 in the news and the 90s, and they’re mostly decided by smoking, fitness and strength. What adds the most years? ranks them, and the calculator puts them on your own age.