Jimmy Carter, the oldest US president, has died at the age of 100

Former US President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100, the center he founded has confirmed.

The former peanut farmer lived longer than any president in history and celebrated his 100th birthday in October.

The Carter Center, which advocates for democracy and human rights around the world, said he died Sunday afternoon at his home in Plains, Georgia.

The Democrat served as president from 1977 to 1981, a period that was beset by economic and diplomatic crisis.

After leaving the White House in disrepute, his reputation was restored through humanitarian work that won him the Nobel Peace Prize.

“My father was a hero not only to me, but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights and selfless love,” his son Chip Carter said in a statement.

“The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live by these shared beliefs.”

Carter is survived by four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

His wife, Rosalyn, to whom he was married for 77 years, died in November 2023.

As of 2018 and the death of George W. Bush, he was the oldest surviving US president.

Last year, Carter stopped treatment for an unknown illness and instead began receiving hospice care at home.

His presidency will be remembered for his difficulty in dealing with pressing economic problems and a series of foreign policy challenges, including the Iran hostage crisis that ended with the deaths of eight Americans.

However, there was a notable foreign policy triumph in the Middle East when he helped broker the 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel in the United States.

But that seemed a distant memory two years later, when voters overwhelmingly elected Republican Ronald Reagan, who portrayed the president as a weak leader unable to deal with inflation and near-record high interest rates.

Carter lost the 1980 election in a landslide, winning only six US states plus Washington, DC.

After such a heavy defeat, Republicans often called Carter an example of liberal ineptitude.

Meanwhile, many in his own party either ignored him or saw the flaws of his presidency as evidence that their Democratic policies or policies were the better way to go.

Today, many on the right still deride the Carter years, but as the decades have passed, his humanitarian efforts and simple lifestyle have begun to form a new legacy for many Americans.

After leaving the White House, he became the first and only president to return full-time to the home he lived in before politics, a modest two-bedroom ranch-style home.

He chose not to engage in the lucrative after-dinner speeches and publishing deals that most former presidents expect, told the Washington Post in 2018 that he never wanted to be rich.

Instead, he spent his remaining years trying to solve global problems of inequality and disease.