What blue zones are, and what the dispute is about
Suppose someone asks you to prove that a man in a mountain village is 102 years old.
The man has no papers in his pocket. He says he was born in the village, in a year he remembers because of a flood. You believe him, but the person asking wants a record.
In many places, a government office did not write down births. A church did, usually when the baby was baptized. So you could ask to see the church book, and then look for a second record that gives the same year. A marriage entry might do it, or a census.
The argument about blue zones is about records like these.
A blue zone is a place where an unusual number of people are said to reach 100. The term comes from Dan Buettner, an American explorer and journalist. A 2016 paper he co-wrote said people in these places reach 100 at ten times the rate of people in the United States.
The best known are Okinawa in Japan and Ikaria, a Greek island. Two more are Ogliastra, a mountain area of Sardinia, and the Nicoya region of Costa Rica. A 2025 review of 65 records found ten places called blue zones in the research. It found Okinawa, Ogliastra and Nicoya well described, Ikaria and Cilento with high life expectancy, and Menorca inconclusive.
Saul Newman was working in plant science when he began reading, in his spare time, about the oldest people in the world. He is now a demographer, someone who studies populations. He reports that in Greece and Japan, large numbers of people over 100 listed as alive were missing or dead. This came to light after those places had been named blue zones.
His argument is that where records are thin, mistakes and pension claims can produce very old ages. He points out that remarkable ages tend to appear in places with lower incomes and shorter life expectancy.
He also cites Eurostat, the European statistics office. When it began keeping records in 1990, Ikaria ranked 109th of 128 European regions for life expectancy at older ages. Sardinia ranked 51st.
He has said he has no quarrel with the advice about healthy living. His concern is the records.
The people who defined the blue zones say they checked. Jay Olshansky, a respected researcher on aging, says the original team confirmed ages against several sources, such as local birth and baptism records.
In October 2024, leading blue zone researchers issued a joint statement. They said Newman's criticisms overlook that verification. They said the pattern he describes, called age heaping, does not appear in their data. Age heaping means many people reporting round-number ages or birth years.
They describe the Sardinian zone as a small rural area. A ranking for the whole island may not describe it. They also acknowledge that the longevity advantage these places once had may be fading.
Both sides are asking the same plain question: is this man really 102? They disagree about how well it has been answered. We can't settle it here.
You may think two experts arguing over old records has little to do with your life. It could matter if you are thinking of moving somewhere because it is called a blue zone. We looked for a study showing that moving to one adds years beyond what moving to its country would. We found none.
Our life expectancy calculator uses each country's published death rates. It does not count blue zone claims.
Suppose the records hold. Then those places have more very old people than most, and it is worth asking how they live.
Suppose the records do not hold. Then the places lose their claim, and the habits still stand, because they have been studied far from any mountain village. One study followed about 120,000 adults in the United States. People with five habits at age 50 were projected to live 12 to 14 years longer than people with none.
The five habits were never smoking, a healthy weight, 30 minutes a day of brisk activity, moderate drinking, and a healthy diet. They are open to anyone, in any town.
If you ever stand in that village, you now know what to ask for: the church book, and a second record that agrees. You could also ask the man what he ate this morning and who came to see him.
What does a long life look like where you live? Tell us in the comments. Someone may find the habit they were looking for in your story.
Sources we read
ABC News, "The battle for the Blue Zones," July 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-11/battle-for-the-blue-zones-longevity-science-newman-buettner/106846524
Radio New Zealand, interview with Saul Newman, 2019. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018708179/dr-saul-newman-debunking-the-blue-zone-longevity-myth
Popular Science, "Do people in blue zones actually live longer?". https://www.popsci.com/health/do-people-in-blue-zones-actually-live-longer/
Joint statement by blue zone researchers, October 2024. https://www.bluezones.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Demographers-Statement-10.2024.pdf
Candal-Pedreira and others, scoping review of blue zones, Aging and Disease, 2025 (as summarized by Empire on Demand). https://empireondemand.com/learn/aging-science/blue-zones
Newman, Eurostat rankings, as reported in coverage of his 2024 study. https://allthatsinteresting.com/blue-zones-supercentenarians
Li and others, Circulation, 2018, healthy lifestyle and life expectancy. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047
Tell us in the comments