5 Places Where People Slow Down Aging

Around the world, people are living longer, healthier lives than ever before. One area this is most visible is in the number of centenarians, or people living to the age of 100. In 1840, there were 90 centenarians in the United States—one for every 189,000 people—according to United States Census Bureau records. Today, there are more than 53,000—or one for every 5,800 people. Though we know people are living longer, we don’t necessarily how they do it.

After discovering that there are longevity hot spots where people tend to live especially long, writer Dan Buettner spent over a decade locating and documenting these areas, dubbed “blue.