The Harris Poll^® #61, October 22, 2003

If you could stop time and live forever in good health at a particular age, what age would you like to live at? The Harris Poll recently put this question to a nationwide cross section of adults, and the average age chosen was forty-one. However, this average is based on replies which vary from younger than twenty-one to ninety or over, so there is certainly no consensus.

Many people choose an ideal age that is close to their own. For example, most people who are 18 to 24 (66%) or 25 to 29 (62%) would choose an age in the twenties. The older people are, the older their ideal age. The average age chosen by people aged 30 to 39 is thirty-seven; the average chosen by those aged 40 to 49 is forty and so on. However, as people get old they tend to choose an ideal age that is somewhat younger than their own. The average age chosen by people aged 65 or over is fifty-nine. And the average age chosen by people aged 50 to 64 is forty-four.

These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll conducted by Harris Interactive^® among 2,306 adults nationwide who were surveyed online between September 16 and 23, 2003.

Small, but not insignificant, numbers choose remarkably old ages: perhaps they paid special attention to the wording of the question which said "in good health." One in twelve people (8%), including 20% of those now 65 or older, see ninety or older as the ideal age if you are healthy.

While your current age has a big influence on what your ideal age is, it is not much influenced by anything else we have measured. Whether you are rich or poor, African American, White, Hispanic, Republican, Democrat or independent, highly educated or not, doesn’t much influence your preferred age. However, there is one modest difference – and a surprising one perhaps – in that women’s ideal age is forty-three, four years older than men’s ideal age, thirty-nine.

This question on the ideal age was the idea of the distinguished social scientist Leo Bogart who commented, "People are living longer, with better health care and new medical advances. Yet most of us, until we reach middle age, would like to stay at our present age. American culture has always emphasized youth, but the elderly wouldn't want to go back to their twenties and almost no one wants to start life over again as a child or teenager. Most of us seem to be comfortable with where we are."

Humphrey Taylor is the chairman of The Harris Poll^®, Harris Interactive.

THE IDEAL AGE, IF YOU COULD LIVE FOREVER AT THAT AGE

"If you could stop time and live forever in good health at a particular age, what age would you like to live at?"

Base: All Adults

HOW "IDEAL AGE" VARIES AMONG DIFFERENT GROUPS

"If you could stop time and live forever in good health at a particular age, what age would you like to live at?"

Base: All Adults

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between September 16 and 23, 2003 among a nationwide cross section of 2,306 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education and number of adults in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. "Propensity score" weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus three percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online survey is not a probability sample.

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