Are most of your friends older or younger than you?

My wife and I are in our late 50s. Most of our friends are our age or older. That has been so for most of or adult lives.

Recently, a couple of our older friends have been ill or died. Made us wonder what we might do to develop some younger friends.

ISTM that when I was younger, I sought out relationships w/ folk 10-20 years older than me - who were where I wanted to get to. I appreciated learning from their experiences.

So how old are you, and do you find that your friends tend to be older than you, younger, or about the same age?

I’m 60, my gf is 59. Our friends range in age from 30 to 70, with the average around 50.

I’m in my late 50’s. My friends are no more than a year or 2 older. My youngest friend is 5 years younger.

I went the next-to-last choice but a lot depends on which circle of friends we are discussing …

My personal friends are mostly older by 5 or more years; our “joint friends” around the same age.

My work friends are all younger and most by a lot.

My hunting/fishing buddies are my age.

Younger. In some cases substantially younger (as in twenty or thirty years younger).

I used to know most of my friends through where I worked, which meant they were around my own age. But I moved shortly before retiring and I lost contact with that group of friends.

My current circle of friends are people I’ve met through my hobby, which I now have more time for. And the hobby skews younger so I meet mostly people who are younger than me.

I have different groups of friends.
My “gym friends” are mostly younger than me, in some cases nearly 1/3 my age. My workout partner, with whom I socialize quite a bit, is 35, and I’m 58.
My “professional/social” friends are mostly my age or slightly older.

I’m most compatible with people older than me. Thus, my two best friends are 10 and 18 years older than me. Still, I have friends up to a decade my junior.

420?
mmm

My closest friends are still ones I made in high school and college. I’m also friends with their friends from the same period. So for the most part, we’re all approximately the same age. I have some friends through work as well, but by coincidence we’re still close in age (the distribution is wider, but still +/- 5 years and not really offset in either direction).

Most are 10 to 30 years younger. Actually, the great majority of people in general are younger.

The skew younger because they skew single. That started kicking in during my 30s. I’d already been married and divorced. Most my age were getting married and settling down. I fit less well with the ways they typically socialized. There was even some active exclusionary efforts.

Then some assholes flew planes into building and I fit even less well with a lot of the people around my age. The 11.5 year period where I was mobilized a month shy of 6 years produced a lot of instability and even less focus on the kinds of concerns that fit well with more stable people my own age. It also chewed up a lot of friendships. By the time that all came to a close, I was in my mid 40s, single, no kids, and had no civilian job or career left to go back to. Even if I had more life experience my circumstances were more similar to a lot of young adults just getting out of college. I’m still in a state of reworking of my life.

Being 50 means I’m not going back to a more typical track for the 20 somethings I’m more like at the moment. I took a different path. I can’t go back and erase both the changes it produced in me and the time it took from my life.

There’s people my age and older that still works with. Not even all of them are single. There are also real differences between me and a lot of people my own age. I tend to find more acceptance in those whose lives are closer to my own than those whose birth dates are closer to my own.

Well, yes, as a matter of fact, they are. Especially as you increase the precision of the measurements involved.

Depending on what counts as “friends” I’d say they range in ages quite widely. I am nearly 50, and I have some friends in their 60s and some in their 30s. Throughout my various stages of life I’ve had differing hobbies, but ages ranged fairly extensively throughout, especially when I acted in Community Theatre.

My wife is five years younger than me, and I consider her to be my primary friend. And at this point in my life, the handful of people I consider “friends” are between 1 and 6 years younger than me. I’ve never had people that I consider to be friends that are older than me.

I voted “Most of my friends are 5 or more years younger than me.”

My bridge buddies are mostly 10-30 years older than I am. My dancing friends are mostly 10-30 years younger than I am. My puzzle friends vary, with most probably my age +/- 15 years. My work friends are my age or younger. Mostly younger, I guess.

It gets awkward when you share friends with your kids. My (then dependant) son asked if he could have some people over while my husband and I were out. We said he could. It was a surprise to come home and find all the people he’d invited over were also my friends. (And he been my friends before they met my son.)

Mine are all over the place, regarding age. I’m in my 30s, my youngest friends are in their early 20s, the oldest are in their 60s.

That’s not counting workmates or those I’m friendly with but don’t really hang round with at Uni, which would push the range out to late teens to early 80s.

That being said there is a definite cluster around my age group.

Younger and many are ten years younger or more. I just relate better to people in their 20’s and early 30’s.

Older. I was one of those weirdo kids who would hang out with the teachers on the playground instead of the other kids.

My husband is exactly 20 years younger than I am… same birthday. Most of our friends are around 5-15 years younger than I am.

  1. Four friends, one is older. I know quite a few people, only 4 are much fun to be around AND would help me make/move a body and keep their mouth shut about it.