London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

How do you know when you’re old?

How do you know when you’re old?

When does someone hit “old age”? And what does it actually mean to be “old”?

Those were some of the questions Nathan Yau, a statistician who runs data analysis site FlowingData, posed in a recent post. Yau said the definition of “old age” is loose — some people say it depends on gender, others by aesthetics — but if we assume it is around 65 years old, in line with Medicare eligibility, then people are “old” longer now than ever before.



Nearly a century ago, it was uncommon to find people who lived past 65 years old. Half of males saw their 65th birthday and 57% of women did, whereas today, men, on average, spend 11 years in “old age” and women get 16 years.

Naturally, the survival rate of people in 2020 dips at 50 years old and continues on the decline until it flatlines at around 100 years old, but it’s a steady decrease into their 60s, 70s and even 80s.



Nathan Yau


Another way to define old age would be to link it to life expectancy, Yau said, citing research from a report about human life expectancy and aging. Doing so would keep someone “old” for the same amount of time, but it would help people plan for their future and retirement. Instead of tagging the description to a specific age, people who will naturally live longer can plan for old age to come later.

Life expectancy is a crucial aspect of retirement planning, even if it is difficult to determine. When someone has a rough idea of how long she will live, she can estimate how much money she needs to last her lifetime as well as how to spend it down in a timely fashion so she doesn’t have too much or too little left before she dies.

Americans are living longer, and they’re healthier for longer, which means they work later in life. Of course, that’s not the case for everyone, depending on their medical history, familial responsibilities and if they’re working physically demanding jobs. Still, associating retirement with a fixed age, like 65, isn’t always the best way to plan for this next stage of life, especially with many people working well into their 60s and 70s.

Yau has also written about “finding the new age for your age,” in light of society considering older people younger (“50 is the new 40,” for example). He looked at current and historical mortality data, and attempted to determine a new age for a person’s current age.

After using birth decades for comparison between men and women, he concluded the median difference between a person’s actual age and “new age” is about nine years. But that estimate changes depending on the decade being compared with 2020. For example, a 50-year-old in 2020 would be the “new 38” of 1950 but the “new 44” of 1980.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×