The U.S. Census Bureau reported exactly one year ago that the life expectancy average is now 78.8 years. That's just a statistic to most of us unless we know lifespan was 70.8 years in 2010 and only 50 in 1916.
Here's another statistic: in 1980, only 32,000 Americans had celebrated their 100th birthday.
Today? There are about 70,000.
What does that mean for them and all of us on National Centenarians Day, September 22? People worldwide are living longer.
While genetics plays a role, experts agree that advances in medicine, medical care, and lifestyle since the 19th and 20th centuries have an even greater influence. Think of America in 1916. The population was 120 million; today it is 320 million. Communicable diseases like measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and whooping cough were rampant. There were no inoculations. One hundred thousand people a year died of tuberculosis. There were no antibiotics. In cities, a third of babies died at birth.
Influenza, pneumonia and gastrointestinal infections, such as diarrhea, were among the top ten causes of death.
Accidents in the streets, on the farms and in unregulated factories and workshops maimed and killed thousands of workers, often from staph infections.
Today's centenarians have witnessed the world move from an agricultural society to the age of technology.
Today there are many living people over the age of 100. One is Jersey girl Adele Dunlap, who was born Dec. 12, 1902, is 113 years old and holds the current title of Oldest Living American; she is also Number 10 on the list of World Living Supercentenarians. Her son (age 86) said she never went jogging, never weighed more than 140 pounds, wasn't a drinker, but smoked until her husband had his first heart attack. The one thing she can't do without is oatmeal. x
