Young at 45, old at 67

IN CYPRUS you stop being young when you reach 45 but you’re not considered old until you reach 67, according to a poll by the European Social Survey.

The organisation took in 21 European countries and more than 40,000 respondents to establish its findings, which indicated for the most part that age, like beauty, was based on the perception of the beholder.

According to the results youth was perceived to end earliest in Nordic countries such as Norway – at the age of 34 –  compared to countries on the other end of the scale like Cyprus, where the average perception is that you stop being young at 45 but you don’t start being old until 67.

“The survey showed that age prejudice – being treated as ‘too young’ or ‘too old’ – is perceived to be a serious or very serious issue by 63 per cent of [total] respondents so it is obviously important to know what these age labels mean to people,” said Professor Dominic Abrams of the University of Kent, who conducted the research.

In general, men regarded the end of youth and start of old age to begin two years earlier than women did. There were also large differences between European countries.

Portugal was at the other end of the spectrum from Cyprus. There people believe youth ends at 29 and old age starts at 51. Belgians rank old age at 64, three years younger than Cyprus.

The average Briton believes youth ends at 36 and old age starts at 58.

The ‘age of the beholder’ is also an issue, according to Abrams. On average, the youngest respondents  -15 to 24-year old – judged that youth ends at 28 and old age starts at 54, whereas the oldest age group  – 80 and older – judged that youth ends at 42 and old age starts at 67.

The findings illustrate that when people discover another person’s age, their judgement of whether that person is young or old is highly subjective and this may have important implications in influencing people’s assumptions about the person’s responsibilities, rights and capabilities.

Abrams said: ‘This evidence shows that what counts as young and old is very largely down to the age of the beholder.’

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.