Three sisters in Rio de Janeiro have entered the record books simply by living — and living, and living. Together they have been recognized as the world's oldest trio of siblings alive today.
A record more than a century in the making
According to Guinness World Records, the sisters — Levita, born in 1917 and aged 109; Zoraide, born in 1921 and aged 104; and Zulina, born in 1923 and aged 103 — have a combined age of more than 316 years. The record was documented by the longevity-research organization LongeviQuest, which verifies the ages of the world's oldest people, and certified by Guinness in June 2026.
The three grew up among eight siblings in a rural Brazilian family and went on to lead very different lives. By the family's account, Zoraide trained as a teacher and later as a nurse; Zulina married and raised six children before moving to Rio in the 1950s; and Levita, who never married, spent years working for the Brazilian television network Globo and was, in many tellings, the family's organizer and carer.
What researchers hope to learn
Three siblings each passing the century mark in one family is unusual enough to interest scientists. The sisters have drawn the attention of a longevity research project led by geneticist Mayana Zatz at the University of São Paulo, which sequences the genomes of centenarians in search of protective genetic variants, the South China Morning Post reported.
"Through DNA testing, we look for protective genes, and we know there are several of them," Zatz has said, adding that families with multiple centenarians make such research more precise. Researchers caution, though, that genes are only part of the story; environment, habits, social ties and chance all shape how long and how well a person lives.
More than a number
Longevity researchers who study cases like this often make a similar point: the striking statistic is the combined age, but the more interesting thread is the relationships behind it. Robert Young of LongeviQuest framed the sisters' record as a reminder that longevity "is not only about years lived, but about the relationships, sacrifices, and shared histories that give those years meaning."
The sisters were born into a world without antibiotics and before television networks existed — institutions one of them would later work for. They have watched each other grow up and grow old across more than a century of Brazilian history. If there is a lesson in their story, it is less a single secret than the accumulated weight of an ordinary one: staying close to the people you have known the longest.
