Here’s Wikipedia’s list of verified oldest people in the world.
Interested in the geographical and economic distributions. But the numbers by sex are striking:
Top 10: All females. 3 from Japan, 2 from USA, 1 each from France, Canada, Jamaica, Italy, Ecuador.
Top 20: 19 females and 1 male. 6 more from USA, 2 more from Japan, 1 from Italy, Spain.
Top 30: 28 females and 2 males. 5 more from USA, 2 more from Japan, 1 from United Kingdom, Canada, Italy.
Top 40: 37 females and 3 males. 4 more from USA, 1 from Puerto Rico, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Japan, Netherlands.
Top 50: 47 females and 3 males. 3 more from USA, 3 more from Japan, 2 from United Kingdom, 1 from France, 1 from Brazil.
A factor skewing the geographical results could be the uneven quality of record-keeping in some parts of the world.
Also important is the relative population sizes of the countries, e.g., that the USA:Canada population ratio is about 10:1.
My new role models:
Sounds like a gender gap.
Males have a harder time staying alive at least from birth; biologically they’re more vulnerable.