Midlife

Abstract

Midlife usually refers to the period of an individual's life approximately between the ages of 40 and 65. Midlife, or middle age, is a European–American construction of mature adulthood according to chronological, biological, and medical terms, and is generally associated with declining vitality and the passing of youth, but also with peak performance and generativity. The concept of midlife as it is thought of now was not really possible until life expectancy was above 40 years, occurring in the late nineteenth century, when life expectancy began to rise sharply from about 46 to around 80. Until recently we learned about midlife primarily through studying other stages of life. But since the 1970s midlife has been identified as a topic worthy of study on its own, which is usually attributed to the recent, sharp increase in the number of middle‐aged adults. Currently in the United States about 80 million people are aged 45 to 65 – that is, 26 percent of the population.