Born in the right place? The geography of extreme longevity in France

Results reveal pronounced spatial heterogeneity in exceptional longevity. The lowest probabilities of reaching very old ages are observed in the northern part of the country and in Brittany, while the highest probabilities are concentrated in a contiguous area located near the lower Loire Valley. A cluster of departments including Charente, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres, and Vienne stands out as remarkably robust. Among women born between 1905 and 1909 in this area, more than 2 percent reached the age of 100.