How to Refer to People's Ages in English
Please be careful when talking about age - we don't want to offend people! This post should make the terminology clear to you. Please note that these are not the definite definitions of age categories, as some are subjective definitions and may change slightly from person to person. For example, one person's definition of 'elderly' may be slightly different to another person's definition.
Let's start with the first stage: 'newborn babies'. After this we have 'babies', and then when babies start walking, we call them 'toddlers' and then 'pre-school aged' and 'school aged'. Children under the age of approximately ten, can be referred to as 'young children'. Between approximately ten to eighteen years old we can say 'adolescents' or 'young people'. For example, "How do changes to educational policies affect young people in England?"
The term 'teenagers' refers to young people who are thirteen and above. We can say they are 'in their teens'. We can talk about people 'turning' on their birthdays, for example, "She will turn fourteen on her next birthday." Once someone turns eighteen, they are officially an adult. We can then refer to people as being 'in their twenties', 'in their thirties' and so on. We can say, "I'm in my late thirties and she's in her early forties." etc.
Once someone is around fifty to sixty we can say that they are 'middle-aged'. Often we call people of approximately sixty five 'at retirement age'. These people can also be described as 'mature' or 'older'. Be careful using the word 'old'! This can be a bit offensive. We can also use the polite term 'elderly' for very mature people.
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