The Longest Generation

Forget about Generation X and Generation Y. Today, the nation's most intriguing demographic is really folks age 100 and over. In the United States, the number of centenarians doubled in the 1980s and did so again in the 1 990s. The total now exceeds 70,000. By 2050, according to midrange projections, there could be over 800,000 Americans who celebrate the century mark. Studies show the same trend in other industrialized countries and recently in China. Indeed, population scientist are now counting the number of super-centenarians, or people age 110 and over.
100 is still old as centenarian studies indicate. There are scores of centenarian studies that prove this. A health advice book has been published based on findings from the centenarian study in Okinawa, where the average life expectancy, 81.2 years, is the highest in the world. There are active centenarian studies in Italy, Sweden, and Denmark. For the most part, results from this robust group are still alive. In fact, one of the rewards of living a long life is that, for the most part, the additional years are healthy years.

Physical activity is a recurring theme: the people in these studies are walkers, bikers, and golfers. In Okinawa, centenarians do tai chi and karate. People who live to 100 and beyond exercise their minds, too, by reading, painting, and playing musical instruments. Some continue to work, an indication that our love affair with retirement may be a mixed blessing.

Centenarians don't escape unharmed as they age. Although 75% of the people in the New England study were well enough to live at home and take care of themselves at age 95, this number dropped to 30% by age 102. About two-thirds of centenarians suffer from some form of dementia. Danish investigators, who have taken a decidedly less sunny view of extremely old age than their New England counterparts, published a study reporting that many of the centenarians in their study had cardiovascular disease (72%), urinary incontinence (60%), osteoarthritis of a major joint (54%), and dementia (51%). And life expectancy is short at 100. On average, centenarians will only live another year or two, but that could well change as the size of the age group increases.