Guinness World Records can today confirm that Ms Emma Martina Luigia Morano of Vercelli, Italy, is now the world’s Oldest living person. 
 
Born on 29 November 1899, Ms Morano is 116 years 169 days old, as of today, 16 May 2016. 
 
The record was verified thanks to research conducted by the Gerontology Research Group. 
 
Ms Morano is believed to be the last person living born in the 19th century.
 
Raised in Vercelli, she moved to Verbania on the shores of Lake Maggiore, Italy. 
 
She married in 1926 and has lived there, in the same small apartment, ever since. She loves her home, her collection of watches and her big bed. 
 
Emma married in 1926 and gave birth to a child who tragically passed away when he was only 6 months old. 
 
It was a loss of unimaginable pain for Emma. Her marriage was not working and in 1938, she took the difficult decision to leave her husband, and did not marry again.
 
Marco Frigatti, Head of Records for GWR said of Ms Morano’s achievement: “The Oldest living person record category continues to capture the world’s collective imagination. Ms Morano has experienced things first hand that will soon be consigned to memory, and the record books. She can teach us all a lesson of the value of a life well lived.”
 
Extraordinarily, Emma followed the same diet for around 90 years – three eggs per day (two raw, one cooked), fresh Italian pasta and a dish of raw meat.
 
 
 
Ms Morano succeeds Susannah Mushatt Jones of New York, USA, who sadly passed away on 12 May 2016, at the age of 116 years, 6 months and 6 days.
 
Emma of course also becomes the record holder for the Oldest living female and is just six years younger than the Oldest person ever, Jeanne Calment (France), who lived to 122 years and 164 days and is one of the last remaining people in the world born in the 19th Century.