Blue Zone

Blue Zones is a concept used to identify a demographic and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives. The concept grew out of demographic work done by Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain, who identified Sardinia's Nuoro province as the region with the highest concentration of male centenarians. As the two men zeroed in on the cluster of villages with the highest longevity, they drew concentric blue circles on the map and began referring to the area inside the circle as the Blue Zone.

Together with demographer Michel Poulain author and Blue Zones.com founder Dan Buettner identified longevity hotspots in Okinawa (Japan); Sardinia (Italy); Nicoya (Costa Rica); Icaria (Greece). And among the Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, California. He offers an explanation, based on empirical data and first hand observations, as to why these populations live healthier and longer lives.

Monterey Bay has launched a partnership with the country of Costa Rica as part of a Blue Economy initiative to become the sixth location to join the new "Blue Zones" of the world. The Blue Economy partners have launched a working group on sustainable living and joining the efforts of the "Blue Zones" to expand exceptional areas of health, hospitality, recreation and eco-tourism to create areas of very low carbon footprints, very healthy environments of sustainable oceans, hospitality and living.

The seven regions identified and discussed by Buettner in the book The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest:

Residents of the first three places produce a high rate of centenarians, suffer a fraction of the diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the developed world, and enjoy more healthy years of life.

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