Arturo Licata, from Enna, Sicily, has been awarded the title after officials checked his birth papers and marriage records.
The Italian has been declared the world's oldest living man after reaching the age of 111 years and 302 days today, The Mirror reported.
The world's oldest living person is a woman named Misao Okawa from Osaka, Japan, who was born on March 5, 1898.
Licata, born in Enna in May 1902, three months before Edward VII became king, he has joined an elite league of supercentenarians - people who have passed their 110th birthday.
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He went on to work as a security guard and in a pharmacy where he would accompany children suffering form tuberculosis to hospital in Palermo.
Licata joined the Italian army in 1921 at the age of 19 and served for 18 years, including during the 1936 Italian invasion of Ethiopia. His military service finished just as World War Two began in 1939.
Licata's wife Rosa died in 1980 when he was 78 and the couple had seven children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Licata was born in the same year the world's first cinema opened in Los Angeles and the world speed record set by a car was 74 mph.
The previous holder of the title, Salustiano 'Shorty' Sanchez, died in September last year aged 112 years 97 days.
The greatest authenticated age to which any human has ever lived is 122 years, 164 days by Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who died in 1997.