What year was I born if I'm 87?
1938 or 1939
Anyone who is 87 today, Thursday, September 24, 2026, was born between Sunday, September 25, 1938 and Sunday, September 24, 1939. The boundary falls in the middle of the year, so the answer spans two of them.
- Earliest birth date
- September 25, 1938
- Latest birth date
- September 24, 1939
- Birth years
- 1938 or 1939
- Age today
- 87
Which year, exactly
Someone born on Sunday, September 24, 1939 turns 87 today. Someone born a day later, on Monday, September 25, 1939, is still 86 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 87 today, a date of birth has to fall on or after Sunday, September 25, 1938 and on or before Sunday, September 24, 1939.
There is no 29 February in that window, so everyone who is 87 today has had a birthday every year since they were born. Twenty-five of the hundred ages on this site do span a leap day; this is not one of them.
The two candidate years
- Born in 1938from September 25, 1938
- Born in 1939up to September 24, 1939