“Spectacular.” Since the middle of the 20th century, and more particularly since the beginning of the 21st century, the number of centenarians has experienced a notable increase, enthusiastically states the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) in a study published this Wednesday, April 24.
If in 1950 there were 200, they increased to 1,000 in 1970, to more than 8,000 in 2000 and exceeded 31,000 on January 1…
“Under the hypothesis of a continuation of current mortality trends, INSEE predicts more than 200,000 centenarians in 2070,” says the study published in the bulletin Population and Societies.
Although it specifies that this figure remains insignificant “(less than 0.15%) compared to the more than 600,000 deaths observed each year in France”, the Institute highlights “its spectacular explosion.”
It should be noted that to establish these figures and for greater reliability, the INED counts deaths at these advanced ages and not people living at this age.
An even more notable increase: supercentenarians, those who live beyond 110 years. If no deaths above this age were observed before 1987, in 2022, there will be 39!
This increase in French people reaching a very old age is easily explained by the drop in infant mortality and the increase in life expectancy over the years, particularly thanks to advances in medicine. More generally, society is experiencing an aging population.
Women are largely overrepresented
Women are largely overrepresented among these centenarians. In 2020, 843 women aged 105 or older died, compared to 81 men. They were, therefore, ten times more numerous. The same is true among supercentenarians: of the 39 people who died in 2022, 38 were women.
“This impressive proportion is entirely due to excess male mortality, which prevails throughout life, especially in working age, and which reduces the number of male generations compared to their female counterparts,” says the INED.
These women often carry out “small, fairly hard jobs outdoors (farmers…) and have a diet based on healthy products,” adds Laurent Toussaint, AFP specialist on supercentenarians.
In France, life expectancy for women reaches 85.7 years compared to 80 years for men.
Eight times as many supercentenarians in the West Indies
If no territorial differences were observed within France, a strong and “unexpected” contrast with the Antilles was observed.
In proportion to the population, almost eight times more supercentenarians have been registered in Guadeloupe and Martinique than in mainland France.
“This difference is all the more surprising since Guadeloupe and Martinique have a life expectancy at birth significantly lower than that of France (in 2022, 83.5 years for women in Guadeloupe and 82.8 years for those in Martinique, compared to 85.2 years in France)”, underlines the study.
No clear explanation has been established, but several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this difference.
Researchers highlight environmental conditions, specifically climate, lifestyle, diet or the fact that they are island environments. The inhabitants of certain island environments, such as Sardinia, the island of Ikaria in Greece or Okinawa in Japan, are known for their longevity.
But scientists have questioned the fact that Reunion Island is not affected by this century-old boom. From there another hypothesis was born: the Antillean population is composed mainly of “descendants of slaves who suffered the slave trade, including the deadly crossing of the Atlantic, from which the reunited slaves escaped.”
“These extreme conditions could have given rise to the most robust selection and, with it, perhaps that of longevity genes,” asks the INED.
Before adding: “In fact, the genealogical monitoring already carried out on half of the supercentenarians, that is, about fifteen, shows that they are all descended from slaves.”
“We are making some progress on the issue of eggs and we would have to carry out genetic tests to be able to prove it,” France Meslé, research director at INED and co-author of the study, declared to Le Parisien. .
Source: BFM TV
