Few would argue that achieving the age of 100 years is extraordinary, but what about the quality of life at this extreme age? Is it worth it to live to 100 and beyond? The study by Araújo, Ribero, Teixeira, and Paúl (Reference Araújo, Ribeiro, Teixeira and Paúl2015) in three ways provided an answer to this question substantiating and complementing recent findings about successful aging in extreme old age (Poon and Perls, Reference Poon and Perls2007; Martin et al., Reference Martin2015). First, the study joined other investigators in asking whether the criteria for successful aging posed by Rowe and Kahn (Reference Rowe and Kahn1997) are applicable for older adults at the end stage of a very long life. Second, the study shed light on whether objective or subjective criteria are more appropriate to gauge levels of successful aging for the oldest old (e.g. Pruchno et al., Reference Pruchno, Wilson, Genderson and Cartwright2010; Cho et al., Reference Cho, Martin and Poon2012). Finally, the study provided additional data on psychological, social, and economic resources that enhance the needed ingredients of successful aging at the century mark.

Healthy and successful aging is possibly the most important research outcome and policy decision related to aging and the aging population. About 30 years ago, Rowe and Kahn (Reference Rowe and Kahn1997) revitalized the discussion on the concept of successful aging. This effort created one of the most sustained and energetic research enterprises in the history of aging research and at the National Institute on Aging (Poon and Perls, Reference Poon and Perls2007; Poon and Cohen-Mansfield, Reference Poon and Cohen-Mansfield2011).

Rowe and Kahn's work advocated that physical health, cognitive, and daily functioning, as well as social engagement are primary criteria for successful aging. Many studies in the last 30 years employed these criteria for measuring successful aging. Araújo et al., (Reference Araújo, Ribeiro, Teixeira and Paúl2015) following the work of Pruchno et al. (Reference Pruchno, Wilson, Genderson and Cartwright2010) and Cho et al. (Reference Cho, Martin and Poon2012) showed subjective criteria are also relevant for older adults at the end of their very long life. It is therefore essential to recognize the relevance of subjective perceptions of quality of life. Success is in the eye of the extremely old beholder.

Another important aspect of the Araújo et al., (Reference Araújo, Ribeiro, Teixeira and Paúl2015) study is concerned with the specific subjective criteria that may help enhance the definition of success: self-efficacy, hope, and purpose in life, as well as managing economic resources are key criteria for finding life at the century mark meaningful and worth living for. These individual characteristics seem to be more important than having a large social network or social support. The Portuguese sample may be somewhat different from other centenarian samples in that quite a few participants indicated not to have a confidant, and visits were rare for a third of the sample. In our own studies on centenarians (Martin et al., Reference Martin, Poon, Kim and Johnson1996), we found extremely high levels of support.

Another “success” component that should receive more attention is biographical information. So often we evaluate centenarians on how they present themselves at the time of our visit and not how they have been throughout their long life. Centenarians may be viewed as not successful when using health or happiness criteria, but most important for centenarians may be their many memories and accomplishments over a century of life. To build on the Oporto study, future research may want to place an additional emphasis on life-span factors of successful aging.