science

As people get older, they revise the age they consider to be old upwards

None of us are getting any younger, but it appears the age at which we are considered old has moved upwards over the generations.

What’s more, as adults get older, they shift the goalposts further still, a study has shown.

The researchers behind the study said the upward shift could be down to increases in life expectancy and retirement age, as well as other factors.

“We should be aware that conceptions and perceptions of ‘old’ change across historical time, and that people are quite different regarding when they think old age begins, dependent on their age, their birth cohort, but also their health etc,” said Dr Markus Wettstein, co-author of the study, from the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Writing in the journal Psychology and Aging, Wettstein and colleagues report how they analysed responses to the question: “At what age would you describe someone as old?”, which is part of the ongoing German ageing survey that follows people born between 1911 and 1974.