I don’t understand the distinction between your four choices.
I would say that if there is a group of children and I know with certainty that the youngest of the children is 6 years old and the oldest is 11, I would say:
“The children range in age from 6 to 11”. Or slightly clearer, but maybe a bit less natural sounding “the children range in age from 6 through 11”.
That is more clear than “between” because “between” has the inclusive/exclusive ambiguity.
I can not immediately think of a concise, clear, and natural-sounding way to say “in this group of children, I know with certainty that none is 5 or younger, and none is 12 or older, but I do not know with certainty if the group contains at least one 6-year-old and/or at least one 11-year-old”.
This is what is done. ‘To’ should be fine, ‘through’ doesn’t hurt.
When ‘between’ is used it would be mostly interpreted as inclusive of 6 and 11 in this context. But change the context just a little and it would be confusing, so best not use ‘between’ when precision is needed.
Thanks MaxTheVool. I had trouble determining which of the following was more standard: “range in age” or “range in ages” and whether to follow those phrases with ‘from’ or ‘between’.
I see now that ‘range in age from 6 to 11/6 through 11’ sounds more standard to my ears.