The world's oldest living person, the daughter of sharecroppers and granddaughter of slaves, has celebrated her 116th birthday in New York.

Susannah Mushatt Jones marked the occasion privately with family on Monday (local time), according to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) which monitors the world's oldest people.

Ms Jones was born in Alabama in 1899 and after graduating from high school moved north in 1922 to New Jersey and then New York, where she worked as a housekeeper and child care provider.

She retired in 1965 and maintains that plenty of sleep is the secret to her longevity, adding that she never drank or smoked.

The centenatarian, however, has lost her eyesight and has difficulties hearing.

Ms Jones was the third of 11 children born to sharecroppers, and her grandparents were slaves, according to a book written about her by a family member.

The book, Susannah Our Incredible 114-Year-Old Aunt, identifies Ms Jones as mostly African-American, with some Native American ancestry.

Ms Jones never had children but has more than 100 nieces and nephews.

Of her husband, according to her nursing home, she says: "I don't know what happened to him."

She is the third consecutive American to hold the title of world's oldest person.

Ms Jones inherited the title after the June 17 death of Jeralean Talley in Michigan, who was also 116.

Meanwhile, the world's oldest man, Sakari Momoi, has died in Japan at the age of 112.

Mr Momoi, born months before the Wright brothers made their first successful flight, passed away late on Sunday, a official said.

The supercentenarian died of kidney failure in a care home in Tokyo.

The oldest verified person to have ever lived was Jeanne Calment of France who died in 1997 at 122 years and 164 days.

Reuters