When does youth end?

Although it is often said that one is as young as one feels, society has some pretty set attitudes about when youth ends.

Now new YouGov research reveals where Britons believe the boundaries of key life stages like youth, middle age and old age lie.

The general consensus is that youth lasts up to, and including, the age of 29.

Once a person has reached the age of 30, the majority of Brits no longer consider them to be young.

The results also reveal a no-man's land age group – an age range that the English language doesn't seem to have a term for. The majority of Brits do not consider a person aged 30-47 to be either young or middle aged.

Likewise, the point at which most Brits believe a person has become middle aged is 48, while 70 is the age by which a majority of people believe someone has gotten old.

But just because society says something doesn’t necessarily mean it is true in every case. According to the survey, unsurprisingly, age definitions are largely influenced by one’s own age, The Independent reports.

The biggest deniers are people in their 30s - who consistently referred to themselves as “young,” despite “relatively few having used the term to describe other people of the same age.”

There were also those in the 30s range who felt confused by their lack of proper category - with 33 per cent referring to themselves as middle-aged, 32 per cent believing they fit into the youth category, and 30 per cent feeling they don’t fit in to any category.

YouGov

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old age