It’s not just you ― most of us really don’t feel our age.
This belter of an Atlantic article talked about our “subjective age” ― the age we are in our heads, as opposed to what those cruel candles say.
On average, adults over 40 see themselves as roughly 20% younger than their “real” age, the piece revealed.
But what about how others see you? When do they start thinking you’re middle-aged?
The number has changed
A BBC article from 2012 (12 whole years ago ― time really is rude) revealed that most people in the UK thought “middle age” started at 55.
One in five didn’t think it really kicked off ’til about 60, while most did “not see themselves as elderly until they are nudging 70.”
Prior to that study, some surveys had put the “middle age” title on ages as low as 36, the BBC said.
But the numbers have changed.
A more recent YouGov poll from 2018 found that most Brits think someone’s reached middle age by 48.
They also officially classified 30 as the end-point of youth, and 70 as the start of old age.
Unlike the Love To Learn study the BBC referenced, which only asked people who were 50+ for their thoughts, the YouGov example surveyed people across a variety of age groups.
That’s important because, as they found, people change their standard for what “old” is as they get older.
“For instance, most 18-24-year-olds consider a person to have reached middle age by the age of 40, while among those aged 45 and over most don’t think that stage of life is reached until the age of 50,” they say.
Most 40+-year-olds classed themselves as middle-aged
The study found that regardless of other people’s opinions, those aged 40 and above may have prematurely put themselves into the “middle age” bracket, according to the group average “middle-aged” age of 48.
“People in their 50s are the most likely to self-identify as middle-aged (82-84%),” they added.
People tended not to consider themselves “old” until they reached at least 60, and people aged 35-39 struggled the most to categorise themselves.
But as this American Psychological Association paper says, “feeling young” has real, tangible health benefits ― to some extent, the best indicator of “middle age” is how you feel.