Global patterns of human ageing

Ageing is a common, but not universal1-3, degradation of biological systems. Ageing in human populations is marked by a highly constrained, log-linear acceleration of the probability of mortality with age4. This acceleration determines the onset and duration of human morbidity5 and the upper limits of human life. Recent studies have revealed remarkable taxonomic diversity in mortality-derived ageing rates1,3. However, the extent of intraspecific variation in ageing rates is assumed to be negligible2. Here we show the considerable diversity of human ageing rates, across 81,000 population-specific longitudinal measures of the ageing rate derived from 330 billion life-years of mortality data. These data reveal remarkable flexibility and unexpected trends in the pattern of human ageing. Populations with lo ...