Women in this Sardinian village live exceptionally long. Researchers are asking why

Researchers say Bolotana, a town of just a bit more than 2,000 inhabitants in Sardinia, may join Japan’s Okinawa and Greece’s Ikaria among the world's longevity hotspots. Women in Bolotana, a small town on the Italian island of Sardinia, can expect to live to 91 years — more than two years longer than the Italian national average, according to a new study. Women in this village are also three times more likely to reach 100 years old than women living elsewhere in Italy. Researchers estimated that 13.8% of women in Bolotana who reach age 70 will live to 100, compared with approximately 3.5% of women in Italy and 3.6% of women in the United States. “We think this is the longest-lived female population in the world, or close to it,” said S. Jay Olshansky, from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. Among international benchmarks, Bolotana women ranked second only to Hong Kong for both remaining life expectancy at age 70 and survival to age 100. Bolotana first attracted attention because of its unusual concentration of centenarians. In 2024, six people aged 100 or older were living in the village, a prevalence roughly 11 times higher than that of the United States, according to the researchers’ estimates. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging, analysed demographic records from the village, which has about 2,300 residents and found a favourable pattern of survival among older adults between 2021 and 2025, particularly women. The study documented 38 centenarians among 3,060 people born in Bolotana between 1900 and 1925. The findings suggest the community could represent a new “blue zone” — regions where people have unusually long lives, and where there is a disproportionately high concentration of nonagenarians and centenarians. While the study confirms that something unusual is happening in Bolotana, it doesn’t determine the exact causes behind this phenomenon. However, the authors highlight several factors that may play a role, including dietary patterns, genetics, physical activity, family support and social cohesion. Most food is grown locally, including olive oil rich in healthy fats. Families often live close together, and social isolation is rare. “You’ve got this close-knit community where people take care of each other,” Olshansky added. “Movement is largely done by walking, not by driving.” Other blue zones Establishing blue zones has been contentious and challenging, as it requires extensive record-keeping. “What makes Bolotana extraordinary is that it has an incredible historical record that allows us to definitively evaluate ages at birth and death,” Olshansky said. “The municipal and baptismal records date back centuries and allowed us to independently verify ages.” Other blue zones that have been singled out and confirmed by researchers include Okinawa, Japan, the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica and Ikaria in Greece. A fourth blue zone has also been identified in Sardinia, located across six villages in the east-central part of the island, in a region called Ogliastra.