--- title: 116-year-old Italian Woman Is Now The Oldest Living Person description: At 116, Emma Morano is now the oldest person in the world; she is also the only person whose life has been part of three centuries. canonical: https://time.com/4337417/new-oldest-person/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-16T18:33:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:42.229Z og:title: 116-year-old Woman Credits Eggs and Being Single For Long Life og:description: She's now the oldest person in the world. og:url: https://time.com/4337417/new-oldest-person/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c4a1c5a186d06c9/698893523c1639777645d464/emma-morano-oldest-living-person.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TOPSHOT-ITALY-OLDEST-PERSON-MORANO og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 116-year-old Woman Credits Eggs and Being Single For Long Life twitter:description: She's now the oldest person in the world. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c4a1c5a186d06c9/698893523c1639777645d464/emma-morano-oldest-living-person.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Oldest Person In the World Attributes Her Long Life to Eating Eggs and Being Single ## Video: A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now [Watch (HLS stream): A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uJFYIrvP.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2014-08-20. A practicing sex therapist in New York City, Dr. Shirley Zussman has witnessed everything from the legalization of the contraceptive birth control pill to the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s to the rise of internet porn in the new millenium._  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 16, 2016 6:33 PM UTC  Emma Morano, 116, poses for AFP photographer in Verbania, North Italy, on May 14, 2016\. Emma Morano is the oldest living person in the world, and the only one left who has touched three centuries. (OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images) Emma Morano, 116, poses for AFP photographer in Verbania, North Italy, on May 14, 2016\. Emma Morano is the oldest living person in the world, and the only one left who has touched three centuries. (OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)OLIVIER MORIN—AFP/Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 16, 2016 6:33 PM UTC Ask the [oldest living person in the world](http://time.com/4329257/new-world-oldest-person-italy-emma-morano/) — a tiny, 116-year-old Italian woman — what [the key to her longevity is](http://time.com/4138476/aging-alzheimers-disease/) and her response might surprise you. The [Guinness World Records](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/5/guinness-world-records-announces-emma-martina-luigia-morano-as-worlds-oldest-liv-428983) confirmed on Monday that Emma Morano of Verbania, Italy is [now the oldest living person](http://time.com/4329079/susannah-mushatt-jones-oldest-person-dies/) at 116 years and 169 days old. The spry supercentenarian was born on November 29, 1899, making her the only person whose life has touched three centuries. In a 2015 interview with the [New York ](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/raw-eggs-and-no-husband-since-38-keep-her-young-at-115.html?%5Fr=2)[_Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/raw-eggs-and-no-husband-since-38-keep-her-young-at-115.html?%5Fr=2), Morano shared that she attributes her long life to eating three raw eggs a day — she has since gone down to two eggs a day — since she was in her teens (a doctor recommended it for anemia.) She also largely credits her impressive life span with being single. Although Morano had many “suitors” following the end of an unhappy marriage in 1938, she never remarried. “I didn’t want to be dominated by anyone,” Morano said. When Morano was told that she now held the title of oldest person alive, she told the [_Telegraph_](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/13/the-secret-to-longevity-is-eating-two-raw-eggs-a-day-says-newly/) via her caretaker, Rosi Santoni, “My word, I’m as old as the hills.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4337417/new-oldest-person/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4337417/new-oldest-person/"},"headline":"The Oldest Person In the World Attributes Her Long Life to Eating Eggs and Being Single","datePublished":"2016-05-16T18:33:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:42.229Z","description":"As confirmed by the Guinness World Records","url":"https://time.com/4337417/new-oldest-person/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","Aging"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c4a1c5a186d06c9/698893523c1639777645d464/emma-morano-oldest-living-person.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c4a1c5a186d06c9/698893523c1639777645d464/emma-morano-oldest-living-person.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TOPSHOT-ITALY-OLDEST-PERSON-MORANO","caption":"TOPSHOT-ITALY-OLDEST-PERSON-MORANO","creditText":"OLIVIER MORIN—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4337417/new-oldest-person/","name":"The Oldest Person In the World Attributes Her Long Life to Eating Eggs and Being Single"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now","description":"A practicing sex therapist in New York City, Dr. Shirley Zussman has witnessed everything from the legalization of the contraceptive birth control pill to the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s to the rise of internet porn in the new millenium.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uJFYIrvP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-20T13:40:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uJFYIrvP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4337417/new-oldest-person/","duration":"PT3M13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4337417/new-oldest-person/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```