Women in Bolotana, a small village on the Italian island of Sardinia, live far longer on average than the national Italian figure, according to a study published in Frontiers in Aging. Researchers say the village may host one of the longest-living female populations in the world.
The analysis, based on demographic data from 2021 to 2025, found that a 70-year-old woman in Bolotana can expect to live another 20.85 years. That compares with 18.61 years in Nuoro, the province where the village is located, 18.4 years across Sardinia as a whole, and 18.06 years nationally in Italy.
An even more striking figure concerns the odds of reaching 100. The study found that a 70-year-old woman in Bolotana has a 13.83% chance of living to 100. That probability stands at 4.33% in Nuoro province, 4.43% across Sardinia and 3.54% nationally in Italy. The researchers noted the figure is more than three times higher than for women in the United States.
Globally, only Hong Kong shows higher longevity figures for women than Bolotana. S. Jay Olshansky, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago and co-author of the study, said the village may represent one of the world’s longest-living female populations, or something close to it.
A different picture for men
The gap is less pronounced among men in Bolotana. A 70-year-old man there can expect to live another 16.02 years, slightly above the Italian average of 15.48 years. Still, his odds of reaching 100 from age 70 stand at 4.92%, more than three times the national average of 1.41%.
The researchers cautioned that because Bolotana’s population is small — 2,266 people during the study period — the results are sensitive to the years chosen for analysis. When the team looked instead at 2015-2019, the probability of women reaching 100 fell to just 1.46%, though life expectancy at 70 remained above the national average, at 18.3 years.
Centuries-old records confirm ages
Researchers first became interested in Bolotana after noticing an unusually high number of centenarians in the village. Olshansky said municipal and baptismal records going back centuries made it possible to verify the exact age of every person who reached 100, leaving no uncertainty about the data.
The scientists could not pinpoint the exact cause of the longevity, since that fell outside the scope of the demographic analysis. They said it could be linked to a combination of genetic factors, diet, physical activity, family support, social cohesion and access to healthcare.
Olshansky also noted that the village sits in mountainous terrain, that food is mostly locally produced, that social isolation is rare and that people often get around on foot. Dan Buettner, founder of the Blue Zones company and a co-author of the study, said it is already clear that something unusual is happening in Bolotana, and the next step is to find out why and whether the pattern could be replicated elsewhere. The researchers described Bolotana as a potential new “Blue Zone” candidate.
Source: ScienceAlert
