There was a time when turning 100 years old was a singular accomplishment. You were honored by your community, maybe your birthday celebration even made the news. Solely by virtue of your longevity, turning 100 meant that you were ushered into an exclusive club.
It’s still an accomplishment, mind you, but the club is not as exclusive anymore. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, more than 51,000 Americans clocked in at 100 or more–and about 1,400 of them claimed to be 110 or older.
Frightening as it is to contemplate, by the middle of this century, the census bureau estimates, there could be as many as 4.2 million centenarians. Yikes. The bureau acknowledges that the more probable number is less than one million, although no one honestly knows. It admits that all the centenarian numbers are a little on the iffy side.
The numbers in past censuses have suffered from all sorts of human error. Some people honestly don’t know how old they are. Others don’t want to know. Some make math mistakes, or they write the wrong year down on the census form. And let’s be honest, there may be a tendency among the 90-something set to round up to 100. What the heck, for them a century mark carries a certain cachet.
Back in the 1970 census, after all, 106,441 Americans claimed to have already celebrated their 100th birthdays. That was the first time the census was primarily self-enumerated and the experts say the real number was more likely less than one-tenth of that. In the 1980 census, 32,194 claimed to have blown out 100 candles. Census says the real number was likely about half that.
Changes in lifestyle–education, exercise, prosperity levels– make it difficult to extrapolate the growth of the really, really old based on what’s happened in previous decades. That’s why the census estimates for the number of centenarians in the year 2050 range from 265,000 to 4.2 million. Take your pick.
Still, flawed numbers or not, the trend is the trend. The numbers definitely are rising. There were more centenarians in 2000 than in 1990; there will be more in 2010 than 2000–and so on.
Americans are living longer. Well, that’s not totally accurate. It’s the women who are living longer. About 80 percent of centenarians are women. And they didn’t get there by living large.
Oh, sure, every now and then there’s the tale of the mean old codger (i.e. male) who drank every day, smoked like a chimney and never met a fight he’d walk away from. How on earth did he live to be 100? Beats us. But mostly it seems to be clean, healthy, low-stress living by women that’s leading to the exploding growth of century club members.
Read any of those features in your local newspapers. Many of them share the same characteristics: Keep a positive attitude. Learn to cope. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t smoke. Don’t drink. Eat healthy. Get regular exercise.
All that to join the same club as Strom Thurmond? Where’s the bar?
