Here are the ages when everything is at its best
Aging can seem scary, but many scientific studies have shown that being young isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There are many examples of people being at their best well into middle age and old age.
Teenagers, for example, may have a lot of energy, but in general, older people are more emotionally stable.
And so it goes with a number of things that happen to people as they age.
Scientists have found that many of the points are in the middle of an age range. This means that they are all based on averages.
Some are also surveys, not controlled trials, so it’s possible that the self-reports don’t give the most accurate picture.
But the numbers keep coming up for a reason, which is that life doesn’t always get worse as you get older.
Here are some things you can look forward to.
The best time to learn a second language is between the ages of 7 and 8.
Linguists and psychologists still disagree on this, but most people find it easier to learn a second language when they are younger, usually before puberty.
At age 18, the brain is at its most powerful.
Cognitive scientists use something called a “digit symbol coding test” to measure how well your brain can process information. They pair a number with a certain symbol, then give you a string of numbers and ask you to turn them into the right symbols.
A 2016 study found that, on average, 18-year-olds do the best on the task.
Around age 22, people’s ability to remember new names reaches its peak
We’ve all been in a situation where we just met someone new and couldn’t remember their name. A 2010 study showed that this is least likely to happen when you’re around 22.
Men like women best when they are about 23. And women seem to find men more attractive as they get older
The cofounder of the online dating site OKCupid wrote a book called Dataclysm that used data from the site to answer questions about love, dating, and relationships.
The data analysis in the book shows that men find women in their early 20s to be the most attractive. Even as the men got older, it seemed like their preference for women in their 20s didn’t change.
On the site, women in their 20s liked men who were a year or two older than them, while women in their 30s liked men who were a few years younger than them.
A disclaimer: OKCupid’s data pool, which is made up of information from its users, is not a good representation of the whole population.
At age 23, people are first at their happiest
A survey of 23,000 people in Germany found that, “all things considered,” 23-year-olds were the most happy with their lives.
At age 25, a person’s strength is at its highest
When you’re 25, your muscles are at their strongest, but they stay almost as big for the next 10 or 15 years. This is one of the things that can be changed most easily through resistance exercise.
At 26, most people are ready to settle down
The 37 percent rule says that by the time you’re 26, you’ll have met enough people to have some good options but not so many that they’ve already started dating someone else.
And a recent study found that couples who got married between the ages of 28 and 32 have the lowest rates of divorce.
On average, a top marathoner is 28 years old
One 50-year study of marathons found that the average age of people who finished the race in just over 2 hours was 28.
At age 30, bone mass is at its highest
At 30 years old, your bones are at their strongest and most dense.
Again, if you eat a lot of calcium and vitamin D, your bones will stay healthy longer, but they will start to get weaker over time.
Chess players reach their peak at age 31
Scientists wanted to know if physical and mental skills changed as people aged, so they looked at chess grand masters to find out.
Scientists found that, on average, competitors do best at 31 by looking at the scores of 96 grand masters over the course of their careers.
About age 32 is the best time to learn new faces
In a lab test, people’s ability to quickly and correctly recognize the faces of strangers when they were shown to them a second time peaked around age 32. But if it’s been nine years since your best memory for names, you may need to ask them to introduce themselves again.
On average, Nobel Prize winners make their big find when they are 40 years old
A study by the US National Bureau of Economic Research found that most Nobel Prize-winning research is done by people who are 40 years old.
Even if you don’t think you’ll win a Nobel Prize, the idea still applies to other great accomplishments, say the study’s authors. People tend to do their best work in middle age.
Men’s salaries are highest at age 48, while women’s are highest at age 39
Your salary should keep going up to keep up with inflation, but will you be able to buy more as you get older?
Payscale did a study and found that women earn a median of $60,000 when they are 39. Part of the reason for this is that women’s salaries start to rise less quickly after they turn 30.
Men’s salaries peak around age 48 or 49, when the average is about $95,000.
In your 40s and 50s, you know the most about how other people feel
Scientists got together about 10,000 people and showed them pictures of people’s eyes that were cropped closely. They then asked the people to describe how the person in the picture was feeling.
They found that people’s ability to tell what someone is feeling just by looking at their eyes peaked in their 40s and 50s and stayed there for a long time.
Math skills are best at age 50
Even though you learned your times tables in elementary school, it turns out that people over 50 are the best at doing math on the spot.
At 69, people are happy with their lives again
Remember that study that was done in Germany and found that people who were 23 years old were the happiest? After a drop during middle age, life satisfaction rose again around age 69.
Even more interesting, people over 60 were happier with their lives than people over 55 thought they would be in five years.
In your late 60s or early 70s, your vocabulary is at its best
People’s scores on multiple-choice vocabulary tests keep going up as they get older, even when they are in their late 60s or early 70s.
You don’t have to spend all day reading the dictionary to make it happen, but it can’t hurt.
After 70, both men and women feel best about their bodies
Two-thirds of Americans over the age of 65 told Gallup that they always like the way they look.
About 75 percent of men in their early 80s agree with the statement, “You always feel good about your physical appearance.” This is when men’s self-perception seems to be at its highest.
When women are about 74 years old, a little less than 70% of them agree with that statement
People do really get smarter as they age
Life really is the best place to learn. A group of psychologists had people read about a conflict, and then they asked them questions about what they had read.
The scientists looked at the answers to see if they showed traits like being able to see things from someone else’s point of view, expecting change, thinking about different possible outcomes, recognizing uncertainty, and trying to find a middle ground.
They found that people who were between 60 and 90 years old did better than people of other ages in almost every way.
At age 82, psychological well-being is at its highest
In a study that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, scientists asked people to imagine a 10-step ladder with the best possible life at the top and the worst possible life at the bottom.
The average number of rungs for people 82 to 85 years old, the oldest group they looked at, was about 7.
When their age ends in a 9, people are most likely to make big decisions.
There is something scary about getting close to a birthday with a round number. Researchers found that people who were 29, 39, 49, or 59 were more likely to make a big change in their lives, whether it was for the better or for the worse.
They found that these “9-enders” were more common among people who wanted an affair, people who killed themselves, and people who were running their first marathon.
