Key Findings

Here is a summary of some key findings from the survey of 2,969 adults:

When does old age begin? At 68, if you’re just judging it by age. That’s the average of all the answers. More than half of those in the 18-29 crowd think you’re old by age 60, while middle-aged respondents said 70 and the over-65 group said 74. But other markers for old age were measured as well: overall, 76% said you’re old when you can’t live independently; 66% said it’s when you can no longer drive; 51% said it’s when you frequently forget familiar names; and 47% said it’s when your health fails. Only 13% said gray hair is an indicator of old age.

It’s all in your mind: Never mind the numbers. Among adults 65 and older, 60% said they feel younger than their age, 32% feel exactly their age, and 3% feel older than their age. By contrast, among 18-to-29-year-olds, about half said they feel their age, while about quarter feel older than their age and another quarter feel younger. Do they all want to keep going? Apparently so. People on average said they want to live to age 89. One in five wants to live into the 90s, and 8% said they’d like to make it past 100.

The bright side: Older adults are positive about their lives as well. Of those 75 and older, 45% say their life has turned out better than they expected, while 5% say it has turned out worse (the remainder say things have turned out the way they expected or have no opinion). All other age groups also tilt positive, but considerably less so when asked to assess their lives so far against their own expectations.

The downside of aging: About a quarter of adults 65 and older report experiencing memory loss. Approximately 20% say they have a serious illness, are not sexually active, or often feel sad or depressed. About one in six reports being lonely or having trouble paying bills. One in seven cannot drive. Ten percent say they feel they aren’t needed or are a burden to others. However, those with low incomes are more likely than those with high incomes to face these challenges, with the exception of sexual inactivity. In the 85-and-over crowd, 41% experience some memory loss, 30% often feel sad or depressed, and 25% no longer drive.

The return of the generation gap: In a 1969 Gallup Poll, 74% of respondents said there was a generation gap, defined then as “a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today.” When the same question was asked in 1979 by CBS and the New York Times, just 60% perceived a generation gap. Today, that number has spiked to 79%. “It could be that the phrase now means something different, and less confrontational, than it did at the height of the counterculture’s defiant challenges to the establishment 40 years ago,” the study notes. Roughly equal shares of young, middle-aged, and older respondents in the new survey agree that such a gap exists. The most common explanation offered by all ages has to do with differences in morality, values, and work ethic.