If upon reaching your last milestone birthday, you jokingly declared things to be 'all downhill from here,' you were right - but only partially.
A range of scientific studies (cleverly compiled by Business Insider UK) have been devoted to pin-pointing the 'peak' in a human lifetime for particular skills or achievements, physical or mental: be that learning a new language, keeping track of names, running a marathon or just feeling satisfied with your lot in life.
While children and teenagers might have the power of youth on their side, studies suggest that we are happiest and most satisfied once we've reached aged 60 and up. Which is reassuring, no?
Perhaps less heartening is finding out that our language-learning abilities peak aged seven (Duolingo, it's not you, it's me) or discovering that 26 is the 'best' age to find a prospective marriage partner. Given the continued conversation around the gender pay gap, it's also unsurprising (though still eye-rollingly depressing) that a woman's earnings are expected to peak at 39 years, while the average man will not reach his top salary until 48 (most probably because men are still more likely to advance to higher level management positions).
The ages you can expect to 'peak' are below...
7 years old: Learning a new language
18 years old: Brain processing
22 years old: Remembering names
23 years old: Life satisfaction
25 years old: Muscle strength
26 years old: Finding a marriage partner
28 years old: Running a marathon
30 years old: Bone mass
31 years old: Playing chess
32 years old: Remembering faces
39 years old: Salary (for women)
40 years old: Making a Nobel Prize winning discovery
48 years old: Salary (for men)
50 years old: Maths
51 years old: Understanding people's emotions
69 years old: Life satisfaction (again)
71 years old: Vocabulary
74 years old: Happiness with your body
82 years old: Psychological well-being
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