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They Say He's 119. The World's Oldest Man Ever Was 116.
A former farmer in Costa Rica is said by his family and by official records to be 119. If that is right, he beats the oldest verified man in history by almost three years — which is exactly why nobody has confirmed it.
José Flores lives in Sardinal, on the Nicoya Peninsula. The oldest man ever verified is Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, who died in 2013 at 116 years and 54 days; he remains the only man ever confirmed to reach 116 at all. The oldest living person today is Ethel Caterham of Britain, born 21 August 1909, who is 117. International verification of Flores's birth date is still pending while specialists review historical documents.
Nicoya is one of five regions known as Blue Zones. Residents credit water rich in calcium and magnesium, a diet of corn and beans, physical work into old age, and families who stay close.
In 2024, Dr Saul Newman of University College London won the Ig Nobel Prize in Demography for testing that claim. He found that in 2008, 42% of Costa Ricans aged 99 and over had mis-stated their age in the 2000 census; after the errors were corrected, the Nicoya Blue Zone shrank by roughly 90%. His wider finding: only about 18% of claimed supercentenarians have an actual birth certificate, and recorded birthdays cluster on the 1st of the month and on dates divisible by five.
None of that is an accusation against José Flores. He may be exactly as old as his family says. It is the reason specialists are still reading pre-1914 documents instead of handing him a certificate.
No picture of him is ours to run. Every shot in this video is licensed stock.
The reporting
Verified 2026-09-10. This reel reports a pending verification. It does not assert that José Flores is or is not 119, and it is not an accusation.
References
Reporting drawn from Reuters · Guinness World Records · LongeviQuest · Al Jazeera · IFLScience · ANU Reporter · BBC Science Focus
What the reel says
Narration as scripted and voiced.
If Jose Flores is 119, he is almost three years older than the oldest man ever verified in human history. That is why nobody has confirmed it yet
Flores is a former farmer. He lives in Sardinal, a hot town on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, in a wooden house where he naps, eats the meals his granddaughter cooks, and arm wrestles her. His family and the country's own records both put him at a hundred and nineteen.
The bar he is trying to clear is the highest in the world. The oldest man ever verified is Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, who died in twenty thirteen at a hundred and sixteen years and fifty-four days. He is the only man ever confirmed past a hundred and sixteen at all
The oldest living person right now is Ethel Caterham in Britain, born on the 21st of August 1909. She is 117. Flores would be older than her too
Nicoya is one of five places on Earth called Blue Zones, where people are said to reach 100 far more often than anywhere else. Residents credit the water, which is unusually rich in calcium and magnesium, a diet built on corn and beans, physical work into old age, and families who stay close
In 2024, a researcher at University College London named Saul Newman won an Ig Nobel Prize for testing that claim
He found that in two thousand and eight, forty-two percent of Costa Ricans aged ninety-nine and over had misstated their age in the census taken eight years before. After the errors were corrected, the Nicoya Blue Zone shrank by roughly ninety percent.
His wider finding is about paperwork. Only about 18 in 100 people claimed as supercentenarians have an actual birth certificate, and the recorded birthdays cluster on the first of the month and on dates divisible by five, which is what a number looks like when somebody remembered it instead of writing it down
None of that is an accusation against Jose Flores. He may be exactly as old as his family says. It is the reason specialists are still reading documents from before the First World War instead of handing him a certificate
A record like this is not really a claim about a man. It is a claim about whether a piece of paper filled in a hundred and nineteen years ago in rural Costa Rica still says what everyone believes it says
