segments of the adult population–which is a good thing.
The greatest concentration of centenarians has been found in Okinawa, Japan, with 500/million, Bulgaria with 199/million, and Sardinia with 136/million.
The Okinawans have been studied for many years and researchers have attributed their longevity to good nutrition and low caloric intake.
Okinawan children in the recent past consumed about 40% fewer calories than children in mainland Japan (Samaras, 1996). Other factors were a simple life and lifelong physical activity.
It should be noted that centenarians tend to be relatively short and light. This could be an artifact due to the trend toward greater height and body size in the world during the last 150–200 years.
In addition, people tend to shrink with age due to postural changes and compression of the discs in the spine.
However, the Okinawan male centenarians average 148.3 cm and the females 138.8 cm. Even accounting for shrinkage and secular growth, these are small people. In addition, a centenarian study provided data on 14 European countries (The Italian Multicentric Study on Centenarians, 1997).
Samaras separated 14 European and UK countries into two equal groups of taller and shorter populations (based on national height averages for the populations) and found that the shorter countries as a group had a 60% higher percentage of centenarians compared to the taller countries.