A Saudi Arabian man described as the country’s “oldest man,” Nasser bin Radan Al Rashid Al Wadaei, has reportedly died at the age of 142, according to local media reports.
Al Wadaei was said to have passed away on January 8 in Riyadh. Funeral prayers were held in Dhahran Al Janoub, drawing more than 7,000 mourners, before he was laid to rest in his home village of Al Rashid.
Saudi media reports claim that Al Wadaei was born in 1884, meaning he lived through several generations of Saudi leadership, from the era of the kingdom’s founder, King Abdulaziz, to the reign of the current monarch, King Salman.
Family members described him as deeply religious, noting that he reportedly performed the Hajj pilgrimage more than 40 times during his lifetime. He is survived by an extended family said to include 134 children and grandchildren.
According to the reports, Al Wadaei married for the final time at the age of 110 and later had a daughter.
However, his reported age has sparked scepticism among ageing experts, particularly given Saudi Arabia’s average life expectancy of about 78 years. Speaking to Metro, Professor David Weinkove, Chair of the British Society for Research on Ageing (BSRA), said it was “very unlikely” that Al Wadaei was truly 142 years old.
“No one can really know for certain because in a lot of parts of the world, there aren’t reliable records going back that far,” Weinkove said.
He explained that the probability of survival declines sharply with extreme age. “When you get to around 100, your chance of making it to the next year is roughly 50 per cent,” he said. “Living to 142 would be like tossing a coin 40 times in a row and getting heads every time.”
Despite doubts surrounding the specific age claim, experts acknowledge that Saudi Arabia, like many countries, is experiencing a rapid rise in its elderly population due to falling birth rates and improved healthcare.
“It’s possible for someone to be very long-lived in Saudi Arabia,” Prof Weinkove added. “But 142 is a little too much to be believable.”