Jeanne Calment

Born in Arles, France, on 21 February 1875, Jeanne Calment died on 4 August 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days. No other person with a documented age has come within three years of her.

In 2018 two Russian researchers suggested her daughter had taken her identity. Most longevity researchers rejected the claim, and the record still stands.

Context

Calment's age rests on civil and population records from Arles, which French demographers examined closely in the 1990s while she was still alive. Her case is so well documented that it is used as the reference point for human lifespan studies, and demographers treat her as an outlier far beyond the next-longest verified life.

The 2018 identity-swap theory argued that her daughter Yvonne, who died in 1934, may have assumed her mother's identity to avoid inheritance taxes. Critics pointed out that the idea depended on speculation about photographs and interview answers, and that extensive archival evidence contradicted it. Specialists in age validation have continued to accept the record.

One well-known story from her life is a 1965 deal in which a lawyer agreed to pay her a monthly sum in exchange for ownership of her apartment after her death. He died before she did, having paid far more than the home was worth. Her record matters because it is the benchmark against which every later claim to extreme old age is tested.