This is a list of oldest people by nation. It includes the individual(s), for each given country, who are reported to have had the longest lifespan. Such records can only be determined to the extent that the given country's records are reliable. Comprehensive birth registration largely came into being in the 20th century; reliable records are therefore fragmentary. The earliest comprehensive recordkeeping systems arose in Europe, in countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands. England and Wales in the United Kingdom organised a central recordkeeping system in 1837 which was made compulsory by 1874.
This list comprises the longest-lived individuals, by country, but only to the extent that their lifespans have been reliably established. Records for both males and females are noted, where known. Similarly, those born in one country who emigrated to another are identified insofar as that information is available. If more than one individual is listed for a given country and gender, it is the result of disputed reports, alternative reports, or a lack of sufficient documentary evidence to make a clear determination. Nations are listed in alphabetical order. Some listed nations were once European colonies (i.e. French Algeria, Spanish Morocco) with the result that their record-keeping systems are more analogous to those of 20th-century Europe than to those of their geographic neighbours.
- For a global overview, see the table of national longevity recordholders and the separate lists of living national longevity recordholders and oldest people by U.S. state.
Read more about List Of Oldest People By Nation: Verified National Longevity Recordholders
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“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“Hey, you dress up our town very nicely. You don’t look out the Chamber of Commerce is going to list you in their publicity with the local attractions.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar)
“The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“To avoid discord, never put two wise people in the same room.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)