SENIORS Centenarians fastest-growing age group in the U.S.

Abstract

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - When Roberta Green applied for Social Security, she was carded.

That was 40 years ago. Today, with her porcelain skin and a crown of white, curly hair, Green, 101, looks younger than 70. She's also a member of one of the fastest-growing age groups in the United States - people who live a century or more.

Surviving 100 years was easy, Green said, padding around her apartment at the Overland Park Place Retirement Home in Kansas, laughing about her younger days - when she was only 70-something.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - When Roberta Green applied for Social Security, she was carded.

"The man at the counter very patiently explained to me that you have to be 61," she recalled. "I loved it."

That was 40 years ago. Today, with her porcelain skin and a crown of white, curly hair, Green, 101, looks younger than 70. She's also a member of one of the fastest-growing age groups in the United States - people who live a century or more.

A recent U.S. Census Bureau report estimates that nearly 70,000 centenarians live in the United States, about double the number from a decade ago.

Surviving 100 years was easy, Green said, padding around her apartment at the Overland Park Place Retirement Home in Kansas, laughing about her younger days - when she was only 70-something.

She called that time her "second middle age."

"I'm in my third middle-age now," she said. "I've been married two times." Then she added with a wink, "but I've been in love four or five times. Oh, I need a computer just so I can count all my blessings these years."

While California, New York and Florida had the largest numbers of residents 100 years old or older, centenarians make up a larger percentage of the population in Midwestern states. Among them Iowa is first, Kansas sixth and Missouri 13th.

That's not because Midwesterners are necessarily hardier, said Victoria Velkoff, co-author of the census report. It's because young people looking for jobs have been migrating from the rural Midwest to cities. Left behind are parents and grandparents, too attached to their land and communities to move.

Cleaner drinking water, better sanitation, antibiotics to fight infections and better treatments for chronic illness have all contributed to longer life expectan cy, said Linda Redford, a senior research associate at the Center on Aging of the University of Kansas Medical Center.

And of those living past 100, four out of five are women.