Italy has a well-established image as the land of the centenarians (in part helped by a series of high-profile olive oil advertisements). Scenes of people still active and vibrant well into their 70s and 80s seem to characterise the South of Italy and its islands.
A survey of where Italy's centenarian's actully live, though, reveals a slightly different picture.
The image above shows that Lombardy actually holds the record of most inhabitants over the age of 100, with Emilia Romagna a rather distant second.
Tuscany, despite its miraculous extra-virgin olive oil, only comes 6th and Sicily (an equally well-known olive oil producer) a close 7th.
In any case, Italy holds its ground as one 15 top countries with the highest life-expectancy rate (currently at 80 years old) and it is expected that by 2050 there will be more that 250 000 people over the age of 100 in Italy.
