'Lucky' 100-year-old woman in Italy renews her drivers license, surprising even herself

A woman in Italy has renewed her driver's license at age 100, local media reports say.

Candida Uderzo, who lives in Italy's northern province of Vicenza, received her new license after passing an eye test at a nearby driving school. Now, the centenarian can get behind the wheel until at least 2024, when the license expires.

“This renewal makes me happy and will make me feel a little bit freer too,” Uderzo told Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera in an English translation. “I’m lucky. I’m 100 years old, and being so healthy is a surprise to me, too. I never take tablets, just the odd sleeping pill once in a while.”

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According to The Guardian, Uderzo is at least the third person more 100 years old deemed fit to drive in Italy in recent years. And across the country, the number of centenarians is rising – as of January 2021, 17,935 people over 100 were living in Italy (up from 14,456 in 2019).

According to the World Economic Forum, with statistics from the United Nations and Statista, there are now more than half a million people over 100 worldwide. Japan has the largest rate of centenarians, with 0.06% of the country's population age 100 or older. In terms of population count, the United States has the highest number of centenarians in the world – 97,000 centenarians nationwide.

'I wasn’t going to sit around': 105-year-old woman renews driver’s license in Illinois

The United States has also seen driver's license renewals for centenarians in recent years. In 2020, a 105-year-old woman in Illinois, Lois Estes Paulson, renewed her driver's license – making her the fourth-oldest licensed driver in the state at the time.

Contributing: Jane Carlson, Daily Review Atlas

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 100-year-old woman in Italy gets driver's license renewed