The world’s oldest person has died aged 117

Her family announced the news on social media

Branyas, who lived through a plague epidemic and two world wars, celebrated her 117th birthday in March this year.

Her family announced the news on X saying: "Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain. We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness."

For the last two decades, Branyas had been living in the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in the town of Olot in northeastern Spain.

Experts had marvelled at her good mental and physical health however, in a final social media message on Tuesday she warned followers that she felt weak.

She said: "The time is near. Don't cry, I don't like tears. And above all, don't suffer for me. Wherever I go, I will be happy."

Branyas was born in San Francisco in 1907 while the city was suffering from a second wave of the Bubonic plague. Her family moved back to Spain in 1915 when her father fell ill.

She married a Catalan doctor Joan Moret aged 23 in 1931 but he passed away 46 years ago when he was 71.

Branyas had three children, 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Guinness World Records had officially acknowledged Branyas' status as the world's oldest person in January 2023 following the death of French nun Lucile Randon aged 118.

She attributed her good health in her old age to 'staying away from toxic people' as she tried to live a stress-free life.

She exercised every morning until she was 105, played piano and read the newspaper. She used social media platform X and had more than 16,000 followers.

Following Branyas' death, Japan's Tomiko Itooka becomes the world's oldest person at age 116. The Guinness World Record for the oldest person to ever have lived belongs to Jeanne Louise Calment who lived for 122 years and 164 days.