As of 2022, the oldest living person in the world is a Japanese woman by the name of Kane Tanaka at the age of 119 years old. This increase in longevity and overall life expectancy can be credited to better food, better infant care, and western intolerance to war, as Old Men and Infidels author Walter Clark Boutwell says. Other contributing factors could be better sanitation, better medicine, and overall better quality of life.