Dutch scientists have determined that there is a limit to human life, a "glass ceiling" of 115.7 years for women and 114.1 years for men, despite life expectancy increasing on average.
Statisticians from the Universities of Tilburg and Rotterdam researched data from the last three decades related to 75.000 Dutch people whose exact age was entered at the time of death, Croatian Express reports.
"On average, we live longer, but the oldest among us have not gotten older in the last thirty years," explained Professor John Einmal, lead scientist of the study.
"It is obvious that life expectancy has increased," added the professor, pointing out that in the Netherlands the number of people who reached the age of 95 has almost tripled.
"However, there is clearly a wall and that upper limit has not changed," he pointed out.
Life expectancy is the average life expectancy that individuals of a certain age group can expect and is one of the indicators of well-being in society.
The results of the Dutch study complement the findings of scientists from the US who established a similar upper limit in 2016.
Nevertheless, American scientists claim that individuals today do not reach an extremely old age, as was once the case. John Einmal and his colleagues disagree with that claim. They report that their findings show almost no difference in maximum life expectancy today compared to the past.
Einmal points out that some people defy the standards, such as the case of the French woman Jean Calment, a person who lived a long time, and that this could be determined with certainty on the basis of her birth certificate.
Jean Calment died in 1997, at the age of 123 (she was 122 years and 164 days old).
The results of the research by John Einmal and his colleagues will be published in about a month.
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