Have you reached that auspicious birthday at which point you now consider yourself “old?” In your mind, how old do you have to be to be considered old? According to new research published in the journal Psychology and Aging, our perceptions of what constitutes “old” have shifted as people have begun to live longer and healthier later in life. The research found that when people now reach the age of 64, the average perceived age of “old age” starts at about 75, and then for every few years of additional aging, that number designating old age gets bumped up another year. This is a shift from the perceptions measured in previous decades (where old age was perceived to begin around the age of 71), though it appears that this upward pull of “old” designations may be slowing down at this point.

The research surveyed over 14,000 adults as part of a German Aging survey of individuals born between 1911 and 1974 over 25 years (from 1996 to 2021). Not surprisingly, the older the survey participants got, the more they pushed out the age at which someone becomes old. What was also interesting was the women respondents tended to say that old age was reached 2 years later than the male respondents believed. It also appears that the respondents who reported feeling old, or who were in poor health, and reported feeling lonely, believed that old age was reached at an earlier age than those respondents who were in better health, felt younger, and were not lonely. 

In some ways, these changing attitudes about what is “old” reflect the fact that “old age” is really a subjective concept, reflecting what’s going on in society rather than a fixed biological moment. In fact, as one expert makes clear, there’s nothing we can definitely point to as a transitional moment in which we slip into old age, in contrast to such physiological milestone events as puberty or menopause. Whether or not survey responses pushing the boundaries out of old age reflect a positive image of aging or a negative one, what is clear is that we each age quite differently and have our own perceptions of when we’ve hit “old age.” And furthermore, what’s also clear is that whatever number you hit on your last birthday, it doesn’t tell you much about what you can and can’t do. Chronological age should have little influence on how we live or what choices we make. The more positive we feel about our age, the more likely we’ll have the capacity and good health to undertake whatever we still want to accomplish.

As an example, consider recent essays written by two British women, Polly Toynbee and Jan Etherington. Both women are beyond the magical chronological age of 75 (and are therefore “old”) yet both live rich, engaged lives, still active in their work and social engagements. In fact, both somewhat claim their aging as an asset. As Toynbee writes, “At my age, you have shred your excruciating youthful anxiety about how things will turn out. I’m turned out and this is as good as I get.”  And as Etherington adds, “I’ve never been so busy… I want to stay as fit as I can, while also enjoying cake, crisps, and red wine.” Perhaps the lesson that we all need to take away is that a number is only a number- it tells you little about how you should lead your life. But if in some way it relieves you of youthful anxieties or old-fashioned images of what it means to be old, then raise your glass, eat some cake, and celebrate your entrance into “old age.”