I don't feel old now I've hit 60, but when I step out onto the street most people do seem to be a lot younger. It doesn't worry me, but I wondered if there was a way to quantify all this.
So I've dug into a population spreadsheet published by the Office for National Statistics to see how relatively old I really am. They publish it every summer so I'm using the latest data, specifically the "mid-2024" estimates of population. These give a precise estimate for the number of people at each age from 0 to 89, then conclude with an amalgamated 90+ column. So for example last summer there were 691,406 21 year-olds in England, 8230 47 year-olds in Leicestershire and 681 86 year-olds in Milton Keynes.
The median age in England was 40.2, i.e. half the population are younger and half are older. If you've passed the age of 40 you are already in the older half of the population. But the most common age in England wasn't 40, it was 33. There were 833,482 33 year-olds in England last summer, marginally ahead of the 34 year-olds and 36-olds, so if you fancy setting up a greetings card company that's where you should focus your efforts.
To investigate this in more depth let's split England's population into ten equal groups, each containing approximately 6 million people. What ages make up each 10% of the population? That's the ages of the youngest 10% of residents, the next 10%, and so on up to the oldest 10%. The figures are for mid-2024 but should still be pretty accurate today. I've highlighted the group I'm in, but you should look down and see which decile you end up in.
England
Age range
Youngest 10%
0-8
11-20%
9-16
21-30%
17-25
31-40%
26-32
41-50%
33-39
51-60%
40-47
61-70%
48-55
71-80%
56-63
81-90%
64-73
Oldest 10%
74-100+
Children occupy the top two slots, i.e. 0-16 year-olds make up the youngest 20% of the country. Pensioners occupy the bottom two slots, near enough, i.e. those aged 64 and over make up the oldest 20% of the country. I'm in the group just above that along with rest of the 1960s baby boom (we're about three-quarters of the way along the English population pyramid). Approximately speaking each 10% band comprises eight years of births, extending somewhat at the oldest end.
I'm encouraged to see I'm not yet in one of the two oldest groups - 60 is not old for England. But if I narrow things down and look closer to home, outcomes change somewhat.
Here's the split for the population of London. Where are you in this one?
London
Age range
Youngest 10%
0-8
11-20%
9-16
21-30%
17-24
31-40%
25-29
41-50%
30-35
51-60%
36-41
61-70%
42-48
71-80%
49-57
81-90%
58-67
Oldest 10%
68-100+
The big difference isn't amongst the youngest - London has as many 0-16 year-olds as the rest of England. The big difference is amongst young adults because the population suddenly bulges for those in their 20s and 30s. A full 40% of London's population are under 30 and half are under 35. The central groups here comprise only five or six different ages, not seven or eight.
Meanwhile the older groups are considerably broader because there are proportionately fewer Londoners over 50. The 70% group ends at age 48, not 55, and as a 60 year-old I now find myself in the penultimate group. More to the point you only have to be over 67 to be amongst the oldest 10% of Londoners! This is one reason why services for pensioners cost less to provide in the capital than across England overall.
What's happening here is a lot of people moving to London in their 20s and 30s, either from the provinces or abroad, mainly for work, and a lot of people moving away later in life, either to realise property assets or to escape rising rents. We also have a lot of students and they skew things lower too. London really is a younger city than the rest of the country.
It turns out I also live in the youngest borough in London, which is Tower Hamlets.
Tower Hamlets
Age range
Youngest 10%
0-9
11-20%
10-18
21-30%
19-23
31-40%
24-26
41-50%
27-30
51-60%
31-34
61-70%
35-39
71-80%
40-46
81-90%
47-57
Oldest 10%
58-100+
The extraordinary thing here is the young adult bulge, which squeezes out both the younger and older ends of the population. Tower Hamlets actually has proportionally fewer children than the rest of the country, whatever you might have assumed about the offspring of a foreign-born population. It's also very very light on older people, indeed only 5% of the population are of pensionable age. No wonder our council has still money to spend - local demands for social care are way below average.
It's incredible to see an age band comprising just three year groups - our 24, 25 and 26 year-olds form a tenth of the population all by themselves. It's also incredible to see that half of Tower Hamlets' population is 30 or under, indeed over a quarter of the borough is in their 20s. The most popular age in Tower Hamlets turns out to be 27, indeed there are three times as many 27 year-olds as 50 year-olds because the population here peaks early.
But what I find really chastening is that at the relatively young age of 60 I find myself in the oldest 10% of the population in Tower Hamlets. I'm not imagining it, I really am quite old for the place where I live.
At the other end of the scale, I've also the looked at the data for the 'oldest' English county, which is Dorset, and the 'oldest' English district, which is North Norfolk.
Median age in Tower Hamlets: 31 Median age in London: 36 Median age in England: 40 Median age in Dorset: 52 Median age in North Norfolk: 56
So skewed is the population of Dorset that if you're 52, half the population are older than you. North Norfolk is even more retirement-friendly, you can be 55 there and still in the younger half of the population.
As for the point at which you enter the oldest quarter of the population, this varies considerably according to where you live. In Tower Hamlets the "oldest quarter" borderline is 43, in London it's 53, in England it's 59, in Dorset it's 68 and in North Norfolk it's 70. If you want to feel relatively young, move to Cromer.
As a final comparison, imagine being 60 in all these places - which of the ten age bands would you fit into?
Tower Hamlets
London
England
Dorset
North Norfolk
Youngest 10%
11-20%
21-30%
31-40%
41-50%
51-60%
56-61
61-70%
59-64
71-80%
56-63
81-90%
58-67
Oldest 10%
58+
So there you go, at 60 I'm not especially old by national standards, and I shall cling to that thought for a few more years. But I am old for where I live and I shall have to get used to that. Maybe someone'll even offer me a seat on the tube this morning.
