# What's the average age of a straight doper? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 28, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612 "2001-08-28T22:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Formerly\_Bandersnatch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e36b37/32.png) [@Formerly\_Bandersnatch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Formerly_Bandersnatch)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/61 "2001-08-29T14:17:59Z")
Hopefully I won’t kill this thread too. I figure I have a 75 year old knee, and a 25 year old … soul (what’d you think I was going to say). So my average age is 50. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/62 "2001-08-29T14:23:13Z")
1. Crap, I’m older than average. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/63 "2001-08-29T14:25:50Z")
I just turned 20 for the second time, i.e., 40. and I am _not_ a straight Doper. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/64 "2001-08-29T14:26:31Z")
Just doing my part to drag the curve up. 1. ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/65 "2001-08-29T14:26:37Z")
As an actuary, I’m weeping for the lost opportunity to get people to post their **date of birth** rather than age. Data is king, dude - always go for the max, not the minimum you can get. Date of birth allows the calcuation of precise age. The way you have it in this thread, if someone says that they are aged _ **x** _ then all you know is that their _actual_ age is in the interval (_ **x** _,_ **x** _ + 1]. That is, assuming that birthdays are uniformly distributed on the calendar year, on average their _actual_ age is _ **x** _ + 0.5 \* That means that when you do your calculation and declare that the average dope age is 73.2, you should bear in mind that the _actual_ average age is really 73.7. pan Oh yeah - my date of birth is 1/12/1976 \*Of course, in reality this assumption is false. More sex happens at certain times of the year, so birthdays are _not_ uniform. For example, there are always more births on November 14th and the week before and after than at other times of the year. But the assumption is close enough for these purposes. ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/66 "2001-08-29T14:44:17Z")
OK. Allowing for my above post, I put the numbers into Excel and used a half-year adjustment for anyone who hadn’t indicated their exact age (either with a birthday or saying “newly” or anything like that). The sample average came out as… 33.1 years old The sample standard deviation (unbiased) is… 11.9 years. So assuming the data comes from a Normal distribution, we should have about 2/3 of us in the (21.2, 45) interval and 95% of us in the (9.3, 56.9) interval. I see no reason to assume a non-skewed distribution however, so these intervals should be treated with extreme skepticism. pan ---
**Author:** ![VanLandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/eb9ed0/32.png) [@VanLandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanLandry)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/67 "2001-08-29T14:45:19Z")
I’m 30 yrs old. But, I’ll be 31 next year. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/68 "2001-08-29T14:50:39Z")
40 (39 last December) ---
**Author:** ![ninja\_rydr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8491ac/32.png) [@ninja\_rydr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninja_rydr)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/69 "2001-08-29T16:33:07Z")
Still 27 what is until Sep. 3 ---
**Author:** ![jellen92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@jellen92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellen92)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/70 "2001-08-29T16:56:14Z")
27… creeping up on 28 in Dec… ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/71 "2001-08-29T17:03:09Z")
22 ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/72 "2001-08-29T17:51:29Z")
[list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list][list] **62** 😛 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/73 "2001-08-29T17:59:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by beatle \* > \*\*I wouldn’t have been inclined to believe it, but do we have a 40s sweep going here? \*\* Yeah, seem to be us and young whippersnappers. The thirties seems under represented. I know it’s not because they have lives, because I didn’t when I was their age. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/74 "2001-08-29T18:03:07Z")
21! ---
**Author:** ![GrandfatherTrout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@GrandfatherTrout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandfatherTrout)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/75 "2001-08-29T18:18:12Z")
31 and 4/365ths. ---
**Author:** ![Medea\_s\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Medea\_s\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medea_s_Child)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/76 "2001-08-29T18:23:58Z")
I’m 20 going on 6 and 80 all at once. And just for kabbes, 3 July, 1981. (about 4:30 pm) ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/77 "2001-08-29T18:33:24Z")
Everyone thinks I am either considerably older or considerably younger than I really am. 23 2 April, 1978 ---
**Author:** ![Nen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Nen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nen)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/78 "2001-08-29T18:50:01Z")
I’m 814,450,860 seconds old. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/79 "2001-08-29T19:01:19Z")
24 - no one else is 24. I feel … I feel pretty, oh so pretty, so pretty, and … um. Dec 3, 1976. Probably the scariest part is that I realized that as of about three months ago, I am now closer to my 30th birthday than I am to my 18th. Some people have panic attacks about “the big 3-0”. I’m having a panic attack at being closer to 30 than 18. ---
**Author:** ![diamud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@diamud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diamud)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-average-age-of-a-straight-doper/78612/80 "2001-08-29T19:11:34Z")
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