# What is middle aged now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2000, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167 "2000-08-21T15:22:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Amthystre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Amthystre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amthystre)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/1 "2000-08-21T15:22:38Z")
I have been wondering lately, what is the age to be ‘middle aged’ now? I am not sure what middle aged used to be but I remember when I joined the Navy at 20, that I had a First Class who was 34, and I remember how ancient that sounded. Now that I am heading towards 30 myself 34 sounds downright young to me. But with medical advancements and better quality lives people are living longer now and surely the age that one is considered to be middle aged has gone up. Or has it? If it has changed what did middle aged used to be? ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/2 "2000-08-21T15:41:01Z")
Middle age is always 10 years greater than your current age. :D:D ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/3 "2000-08-21T15:55:22Z")
“What is middle aged now?” —I is middle aged now. ---
**Author:** ![jcarbon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@jcarbon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcarbon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/4 "2000-08-21T16:11:45Z")
I’m 48. My wife thinks I’m middled aged, but I don’t know too many 96 year olds. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/5 "2000-08-21T16:22:47Z")
I declared myself middle-aged on my 40th birthday. (I might not be too far off as each of my grandfathers died at 79.) Someone might be a “youthful” fifty, but they’re still in the “middle” of life. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/6 "2000-08-21T16:39:18Z")
I wonder if Marilyn Monroe had a “midlife crisis” when she was 18? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/7 "2000-08-21T16:54:33Z")
I started counting myself as middle-aged when I was 37, figuring that the middle of one’s age should be the portion beginning with the end of the first third of one’s life. If you plan on a shorter lifespan, you may wish to consider yourself middle-aged at an earlier point. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/8 "2000-08-21T16:56:33Z")
Here’s the (arbitrary) stages-of-life system I developed for myself in my mid-20’s, and I will be thrilled if it actually gains a little popularity: **1–18:** childhood/adolescence **18–29:** youth **29–43** or **29–47:** prime (Like Miss Jean Brodie, you know? I’m certain that the range must include 40 because it’s the classical “floruit”, and the upper and lower bounds ought to be prime numbers because it’s cute that way, but I haven’t decided exactly where the upper bound ought to be: as I move into my late thirties I’m starting to favor 47. 😉 In any case, we definitely need this “buffer zone” to ease the transition from youth to middle age—just as, I suppose, we invented “middle-aged” to ease the transition from “young” to “old.”) **43** (or **47)–69:** middle age (69 being the classical “climacteric”) **69–death:** OLD and proud of it. ---
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/9 "2000-08-21T16:57:26Z")
not to be too boring about it, but if the average life expectancy is say, 70 years, then middle age would be 35. But my impression of the connotation of the term “middle age” (meaning not young & not senior citizen) is 40 to 59 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/10 "2000-08-21T17:35:32Z")
I was once reading an issue of Modern Maturity (the house magazine for AARP) in a dentist’s office. In the magazine, they mentioned George Will and said that with his recent 50th birthday, he had now _entered_ middle age. With all respect to AARP, Mr Will, and anyone who follows the “you’re as young as you feel” philosophy, I’d have a hard time calling a 49 year old a “youth”. ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/11 "2000-08-21T17:42:12Z")
Well, if you split life into Youth, Middle age, and Elderly I’d guess you get about 30 years of each, approximately. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/12 "2000-08-21T19:22:45Z")
Easy. It’s exactly one year older than the baby boomers are right now. ---
**Author:** ![charizard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charizard/32/4166_2.png) [@charizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charizard)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2000, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-middle-aged-now/30167/13 "2000-08-22T15:48:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Amthystre \* > \*\*I have been wondering lately, what is the age to be ‘middle aged’ now?.. with medical advancements and better quality lives people are living longer now and surely the age that one is considered to be middle aged has gone up. Or has it? > \*\* I doubt that “middle age” has changed much as a result of medical advancements. Remember that “average life expectancy” is truly an average. While average life expectancy has gone up significantly (over, say, the last 100 years), this has been mainly due to dramatic improvements in two areas: child mortality and deaths of women during childbirth. If you omit these two areas, there’s really not much difference in life expectancy between then and now. So our collective experience of what is the beginning, middle, and end of the human life span hasn’t changed much. As to why we haven’t seen much difference in the life span, medical experts point out that the benefits through the advancement of medical science have been almost completely offset by an increasingly unhealthy lifestyle (overweight, lack of exercise, stress). > [@](#): > > \*\* I am not sure what middle aged used to be but I remember when I joined the Navy at 20, that I had a First Class who was 34, and I remember how ancient that sounded. Now that I am heading towards 30 myself 34 sounds downright young to me. > \*\* Now this is a completely different phenomenon - there’s nothing medical advances have to do with this! And I don’t suppose this is different now than for any other generation, either.