Extraordinary longevity in the Soviet Union: fact or artifact?

Abstract

The authors review previous research on age exaggeration and extraordinary longevity in Soviet Union and present results of their own examination of Soviet mortality and census data from 1959 and 1970. According to authors the reports of extraordinary longevity in Soviet Union stem not from fact but from age exaggeration in census data. Our study decisively demonstrates that census age distributions at oldest ages are severely distorted and thus reported number of centenarians cannot be accepted as accurate. Producing age-sex distributions of those over 60 authors find that significant proportion of enumerated centenarians had not in fact passed century mark. Further results of our analyses employing Gompertz and Swedish mortality patterns strongly suggest that true number of centenarians is but a small fraction of that reported. (EXCERPT)