Who’s the Oldest of Them All?

October 1, 2022

Who’s the Oldest of Them All?

May 29, 2023

For those of you who know something about Dan Buettner’s “Blue Zones” (by the way, he’s teaching at MEA Baja next year…here’s the link), you know five places in the world hold the record for the greatest concentration of longevity amongst their residents. One of those places is the island of Sardinia off the coast of Italy.

In fact, two Sardinian mountain towns compete for bragging rights to see who has the most centenarians per capita in the world. Check out their story in this New York Times article, “Who’s the Oldest of Them All?” There are even campaign posters in one of the towns, just off “Longevity Square.” There’s also a Guinness “World Record of Family Longevity” with nine siblings with a combined total age of over 800 years. And, of course, there’s a Museum of Longevity. Why wouldn’t there be? And the number one thing people are bragging about on the streets of these two towns is the essential qualities that are creating this hotbed of elders—locally-sourced food, the air, communal gathering spots.

To be clear, we’re not talking about every other person living to 100. 7 out of 1,780 citizens is the benchmark that the town of Perdasdefogu has set, or 0.4% of the townspeople. It doesn’t sound like much, but compare that with the fact we have a half-million centenarians around the world out of a population of 7.7 billion people or just 0.006% of the world. If this Sardinian town matched the world average, there would be just one centenarian, so it’s seven times the global average.

I don’t know about you, but I find it encouraging that we’ve entered an era in which towns compete not just on brains, brawn, or looks but on the qualities that lead to a long and healthy life.

P.S. Want to come to Baja this fall but cautious about spending the money? While most of our workshops this fall are either full or only have one or two spaces left, we have four workshops this fall that are getting close to full but still have financial aid options available to you. Here are the four workshops in which we’re still accepting financial aid applications (you’ll see that option as you apply for the workshop):