What year was I born if I'm 86?
1939 or 1940
Anyone who is 86 today, Friday, November 13, 2026, was born between Tuesday, November 14, 1939 and Wednesday, November 13, 1940. The boundary falls in the middle of the year, so the answer spans two of them.
- Earliest birth date
- November 14, 1939
- Latest birth date
- November 13, 1940
- Birth years
- 1939 or 1940
- Age today
- 86
Which year, exactly
Someone born on Wednesday, November 13, 1940 turns 86 today. Someone born a day later, on Thursday, November 14, 1940, is still 85 until tomorrow. That is why “what year” has two answers rather than one, and why a birth date rather than a year is what settles it.
Read the other way round: to be exactly 86 today, a date of birth has to fall on or after Tuesday, November 14, 1939 and on or before Wednesday, November 13, 1940.
That window contains 29 February 1940, so some people who are 86 today were born on a date that only comes round every four years — 86 years old with 21 birthdays behind them rather than 86. The next 29 February is when they have another.
The two candidate years
- Born in 1939from November 14, 1939
- Born in 1940up to November 13, 1940