What Exactly is Middle Age?

Live an average American woman’s life and you’ll die at around age 79. If you could contemplate things from beyond the grave, you could argue that middle age, for you, was around 40. If you’re a man, dying at age 73 as demographers intended, your spirit self might figure 36 had been middle age. But almost nobody buys those numbers — especially people who are middle-aged or older. Alas, there is no official definition of middle age. But the age ranges that used to be applied to it—and often still are—just don’t work anymore. What people perceive as the range of middle age has shifted older in recent decades with the rise in life expectancy, the increasing average age of humans on the planet, and the growing number of “older” people who make a point of staying active well beyond their youth. A <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7203662/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">study from 1980</a> referred to “early middle age” as the age range of 35 to 44, and “late middle age” at 45 to 64. I was 18 in 1980, and I don’t remember anyone in their 60s seeming to be middle-aged. They seemed ancient. They sat in La-Z-Boys and watched Dallas or the Dukes of Hazzard. Check that. I was watching those shows. The old folks were still watching Lawrence Welk. But now I’m 61 and, well, yes, things have changed. I may not be young, but I don’t think of myself as old, either. And I’m way more active than I remember 60-year-olds being back in 1980. <a href="https://medium.com/wise-well/what-exactly-is-middle-age-7c65ce159e9c">Learn More</a>