Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33571137›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021

Demographic perspectives on the rise of longevity.

James W Vaupel, Francisco Villavicencio, Marie-Pier Bergeron-Boucher

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
76citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

76 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Is headache a risk factor for dementia? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2024
    Pooled it
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. The rhythm of aging: Stability and drift in the individual rate of senescence.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  7. Molecular evolution of animal aging.The EMBO journal · 2026
    Review
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Cohort mortality forecasts indicate signs of deceleration in life expectancy gains.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Effects ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Article
  20. Evaluating the Effect of Sex on Mortality Risks in Medieval Ireland.American journal of biological anthropology · 2025
    Article

16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

James W VaupelDanish Centre for Demographic Research, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark; jvaupel@sdu.dk.ORCID 0000-0003-0783-3905
Francisco VillavicencioDepartment of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205.ORCID 0000-0003-3951-7341
Marie-Pier Bergeron-BoucherDanish Centre for Demographic Research, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark.ORCID 0000-0001-7383-3175

Funding

THE RANGE OF MALE-FEMALE MORTALITY DIFFERENCESP01AG031719 · NIA · DUKE UNIVERSITY · PI ZENG, YI · 2009 to 2020
$10.2M
NIA NIH HHS P01 AG031719
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This article reviews some key strands of demographic research on past trends in human longevity and explores possible future trends in life expectancy at birth. Demographic data on age-specific mortality are used to estimate life expectancy, and validated data on exceptional life spans are used to study the maximum length of life. In the countries doing best each year, life expectancy started to increase around 1840 at a pace of almost 2.5 y per decade. This trend has continued until the present. Contrary to classical evolutionary theories of senescence and contrary to the predictions of many experts, the frontier of survival is advancing to higher ages. Furthermore, individual life spans are becoming more equal, reducing inequalities, with octogenarians and nonagenarians accounting for most deaths in countries with the highest life expectancy. If the current pace of progress in life expectancy continues, most children born this millennium will celebrate their 100th birthday. Considerable uncertainty, however, clouds forecasts: Life expectancy and maximum life span might increase very little if at all, or longevity might rise much faster than in the past. Substantial progress has been made over the past three decades in deepening understanding of how long humans have lived and how long they might live. The social, economic, health, cultural, and political consequences of further increases in longevity are so significant that the development of more powerful methods of forecasting is a priority.

Indexed as

Aged, 80 and overFemaleForecastingGlobal Burden of DiseaseGlobal HealthHumansLife ExpectancyLongevityMaleRisk FactorsUncertaintyforecastslife expectancylife span equalitymaximum life spanmortality

Identifiers

PMID33571137
PMCPMC7936303

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.