Ages
Overview
Writing ages in a consistent way helps to make statistical content clearer.
Writing ages
Use the format “aged [age] years” and “aged [age] to [age] years”.
aged zero years
those aged 0 to 16 years
for people aged 40 years
aged 10 to 11 years
If "aged” is not appropriate in the sentence structure, we can use some flexibility.
before the age of 46 years
after 30 years of age
between the ages of four and six years
You can also refer to ages as “[age]-year-old”. Always include the hyphens.
24-year-old
16- to 24-year-old men
For this analysis, we looked at 15- to 45-year-old women.
You can include the months or weeks for ages under one year if needed.
aged nine weeks
aged 11 months
eight-week-olds
20-week-olds
Decade age bands
Write decade age bands as numerals, without an apostrophe.
women in their 40s
Age group limits
Age group limits should include the words:
- “aged” or “age”
- “years”
- “under” or “over"
Do not use the plus sign, or the words “above” and “below”.
people aged 30 years and under
children aged over five years
adults over the age of 20 years
Rankings
For numbers one to nine, write the rankings as words.
first
second
third
For rankings 10th and above, write the numeral and ranking in standard text. Do not use superscript. Superscript is where the content appears above the line in a smaller font size, and is not accessible.
21st
18th
32nd
Birthdays
For birthdays of those aged under 10 years, write the numerals out as words and the ranking as standard text.
her seventh birthday
For birthdays of those aged 10 years and over, write the numerals and the ranking in standard text.
his 30th birthday
Decade age names
Some of our content needs to specifically refer to people aged 100 years and over as centenarians.
For all other groups, do not use decade age names such as “nonagenarians” and “octogenarians”. Instead, use “those aged 90 to 99 years” and “those aged 80 to 89 years”.
Generational groups
Do not refer to generational groups as Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, Generation Z, or Generation Alpha. Instead, use "those born between [year] and [year]".
More information about how we refer to children and young people is available on our People style guidance webpage.
More information about how we write numbers is available on our Numbers style guidance webpage.