Really? I’ve considered myself an old man when I hit 35. I’m almost 40 now and I still feel old as hell.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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.

The results from 14,056 middle-aged and older adults who answered the question between one and eight times over a 25-year period from 1996, when they were between 40 and 100 years old, reveals that the point at which old age is thought to begin has increased.

The team add that while the perception of when old age begins was higher for women than men, and lower for those who had poor health or were more lonely, neither these factors nor education level or how old participants felt, fully explained their findings.

Caroline Abrahams, the charity director at Age UK, said it was well known that people tended to judge “old” as meaning at least a few years beyond their chronological age, even in their 70s and 80s, and that probably reflects the bad image of “old” in western cultures.

“The truth is that chronological age is rarely a good proxy for anything and the sooner we realise that in our society, the better,” she said.

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