Centenarians, Semi-supercentenarians and the Emergence of Supercentenarians in Poland

Abstract

The primary objective of our research was to produce a list, as complete as possible, of validated Polish supercentenarians, that is, persons for whom there is satisfactory evidence that they attained age 110. Surprisingly, considering Poland’s tumultuous history, a great many of the registration records of events occurring long ago have survived. The research, begun in 2012, was done in state archives, church archives, county offices, and libraries, and we report the methodology and results here. Research was also done to obtain a list of the many more persons for whom there is satisfactory evidence that they attained age 105, but that research is not near completion.Although according to official statistics there were 69 deaths of supercentenarians in Poland between 2004 and 2016, we could only validate 14 supercentenarian deaths – all females – ever occurring in Poland. In contrast, there are 25 validated supercentenarians who were born in Poland and last resided elsewhere.We also present official detailed statistics on the number of persons, living and deceased, who attained age 100, by single year of age, and estimate the mortality of persons who attained age 105, based on these data, for the portion of Poland with better-quality information, and compare it to the German experience. Of course, because these official data have not been validated, any inferences drawn from them are not conclusive.