A 116-year-old woman from Italy is now the world's oldest living person on record.

Emma Morano received the news on Friday that Susannah Mushatt Jones, a New York woman who was four and a half months older, had died the previous day, making Morano the world's oldest known person.

Morano lives in her own home in the lakeside town of Verbania near the Swiss border and her health is generally good.

She was born in the Piedmont region of northern Italy on Nov. 29, 1899.

Her secret to a long life, she says, is a diet of eggs every day and going to bed early.

She consumes three eggs a day, two raw and one cooked. It's something she started doing 90 years ago after her doctor diagnosed her with anaemia.

She told the New York Times her longevity has also been supported by living a single life. Her marriage ended in 1938 and she never remarried.

"I didn't want to be controlled by anyone anymore," she said during an interview with the newspaper last year.