According to a new study, the current record for longest life expectancy is likely to be broken in the coming decades. This is because the maximum human life expectancy, if any, has not yet been reached.

‍

In most countries, the average life expectancy of people has been increasing for decades thanks to better healthcare, hygiene and nutrition. However, the maximum lifespan of humans has not changed since 1997, when Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment (born 1875) died at the age of 122 years.

‍

This has led to speculation as to whether there is an upper limit to the human lifespan. Average life expectancy could continue to approach that ceiling, but no matter how much progress we make as a society, people simply won't exceed that age.

‍

So far, much research on the maximum human lifespan has focused on biology. A study published in March 2023 in the journal PLOS One has approached the topic from a statistical perspective and came to an encouraging result for everyone who hopes to live a long life.

‍

“Our findings confirm previous work that suggests that if there is a maximum human lifespan limit, we're not yet approaching it,” write authors David McCarthy and Po-Lin Wang from the University of Georgia and the University of South Florida, respectively.

‍

For their study, the authors analyzed mortality data from the USA and 18 other industrialized nations of people with a common birth year. They found that although the average age at death continues to rise throughout history, there are also times when the maximum age skyrockets—a phenomenon known as a “mortality shift.”

‍

This was found, for example, in women born between 1855 and 1875, and there is evidence that this also happens with groups born between 1900 and 1950. So far, none of these people have broken the record for maximum human life expectancy because most of them are still too young.

‍

According to the researchers' analysis, one group in particular appears to be at the forefront of the phenomenon. According to this, the model suggests that the oldest Japanese woman, born in 1940, has a 50 percent chance of becoming older than 130 years.

‍

This also depends on whether the model is an accurate description of how morals will change in old age and whether there is a stable economic, political, and environmental environment that continues to support extreme longevity.

‍

While the idea that there is no maximum human life expectancy is exciting — on the one hand, it means that immortality is not off the table in theory — but it also means that a situation that we are already struggling with, namely the aging of the world population, could have a much greater impact in the future.

‍

It is therefore all the more important to think now about how to care for this growing group of seniors in their last years of life. Part of the solution could include wearable technical devices (wearables), advanced household robots, and autonomous food deliveries.