IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0212345.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Human lifespan records are not remarkable but their durations are

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony Medford
  • James W Vaupel

Abstract

Has the maximum human lifespan been reached? The current record stands at 122 years, 164 days and has held for over 20 years and is more than four and three quarter years higher than the previous record. The value and persistence of this record have surprised some researchers, with some even questioning its veracity. There have been previous attempts in the literature to answer questions about how long this record might stand and whether it is truly exceptional but the focus has been mainly on the record ages, using ad hoc tools. This article contributes in two new ways. First we study lifespan records via the (inter-) record times and second we make use of specific tools from statistical Records Theory. We find that the occurrence of the present record was not surprising. We estimate around a 25% chance that the record would have survived until now and around a one in five chance that it will survive until 2050, demonstrating remarkable persistence.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Medford & James W Vaupel, 2019. "Human lifespan records are not remarkable but their durations are," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-9, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0212345
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212345
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0212345
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0212345&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0212345?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gbari, Kock Yed Ake Samuel & Poulain, Michel & Dal, Luc & Denuit, Michel, 2017. "Extreme Value Analysis of Mortality at the Oldest Ages: A Case Study Based on Individual Ages at Death," LIDAM Reprints ISBA 2017028, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    2. Samuel Gbari & Michel Poulain & Luc Dal & Michel Denuit, 2017. "Extreme Value Analysis of Mortality at the Oldest Ages: A Case Study Based on Individual Ages at Death," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 397-416, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anthony Medford & James W. Vaupel, 2020. "Extremes are not normal: a reminder to demographers," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 91-106, March.
    2. Blake, David & Cairns, Andrew J.G., 2021. "Longevity risk and capital markets: The 2019-20 update," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 395-439.
    3. Jackie Li & Jia Liu, 2020. "A modified extreme value perspective on best-performance life expectancy," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 345-375, December.
    4. Jesson J. Einmahl & John H. J. Einmahl & Laurens de Haan, 2019. "Limits to Human Life Span Through Extreme Value Theory," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 114(527), pages 1075-1080, July.
    5. Linh Hoang Khanh Dang & Carlo Giovanni Camarda & France Meslé & Nadine Ouellette & Jean-Marie Robine & Jacques Vallin, 2023. "The question of the human mortality plateau: Contrasting insights by longevity pioneers," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 48(11), pages 321-338.
    6. Huang, Fei & Maller, Ross & Ning, Xu, 2020. "Modelling life tables with advanced ages: An extreme value theory approach," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 95-115.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0212345. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.