Data Underload / age, population

Who is Older and Younger than You

By Nathan Yau

Everyone seems old when you’re a kid. People tower over you and do things you can’t even fathom, like walk on just your feet. In high school, elementary school students look like babies, and college kids seem way more mature than they actually are. After college, the ideas of old and young start to get kind of fuzzy, especially a decade out, as I can tell you first-hand.

That feeling got me to thinking. How many people are still older than me? Who’s younger? I found out.

Based on the 5-year American Community Survey estimates from 2014, just over half of the US population was born before me. It’s just a couple of more years until I’m older than the majority of the population. Gulp.

Of course, my 50-year-old self is going to look back at this and laugh at how stupid I am.

Years You Have Left to Live, Probably

Time is limited. Make the most of it, regardless of your age.

Nerd Notes

Data comes from the 2014 American Community Survey, 5-year estimates, which I pulled from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series.
Analysis and tabulation was done in R and the interactive chart was made with d3.js.

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