I think there has been a whole informal "movement", especially among older women, to not be ashamed of their age, so I think some of the taboo has been lost. I still think it's kind of rude to ask someone their age, but then again it feels a bit "agist" to assume someone would be embarrassed to tell you.

And I am 40, for the record ;)

I didn't know that it was not OK in the first place. I certainly don't care that people know my age.

I've just hit my limit. People asking me how old I am barely after they know my name, all the time. Today finally I got sick of it. It's getting up there with the what are you question. What business is it of yours?

I remember that when I was growing up it was supposedly like this huge taboo to ask women their age. At the time it seemed archaic to me to worry about that. I still think it's sort of a personal question, but it does come up and it seems reasonable. I just got a new boss, for instance, and one of the big questions around the water cooler is "so, how old is she?" I think it's one piece of information that can help you better understand where a person is coming from, to a limited degree.

A back-door version of this is to ask what year you graduated high school.

"Oh, you went to East Valley High? My cousin went there, what year did you graduate?"

How can you not answer? But if you're shy about divulging your age, you've just given it away, within a year or two. I don't care if anyone knows how old I am .. but it is sort of a rude question if the only motivation for asking is curiosity. "What are you" is not sort of rude - it's unspeakably rude. I mean really Ethylene. You're obviously a Hoosier amirite?

How weird that it keeps happening over and over though. How old (yeah, the irony) are the people who ask, eth? Are they your age group? Do you look a lot younger than you are? I'd have to see it in context but yeah, potentially rude and maybe even disrespectful. Because it keeps happening. I haven't once been asked my age since I became an adult, so it seems really odd to me that you're being asked constantly.

Someone asked me recently and I said "A lady never tells her age" and he asked again and I just looked at him like he was crazy. Then he asked my bf how old I am.
Some people are just nosy.

Then again I always ask people straight up how much their rent is (it's a competitive sport in NYC) and other people probably think that is rude so I might have offended someone.

I pretty much never get asked my age, but I'm often curious about how old people are because, as Miko points out, it can be a useful pointer to understand where people are coming from on various things. It may be because you don't look like the age you act, so there is some sort of disconnect in people's minds between the two and they're just trying to figure it out. It still seems a bit rude to ask point-blank, though. Next time, ask them 'why do you want to know?', then come back and tell us the answer.

It could be that you look like you're under 18 and guys are trying to find out whether you are 'legal' or not ;-)

It's always OK to ask. You don't have to answer if you have some hangup about how many times the sun has been around the earth since you were born. Or even if you just don't feel like it. It's great! The world is wide open, and you can do whatever you want! =D

So how old are you?
;-)
(Sorry. Someone was going to say that.)

Rent is totally a competitive sport in NYC. And I love to know!

I'm actually old-school and was taught you never ask a woman her age. In fact my grandmother faked her birthday on her birth certificate copy and lowered her age on her driver's license, that's how vain she was. Then when she was older and passing away from CHF, we had to keep telling the doc to add a few years to her age to understand her condition better.

But how much money does everyone here make per year?
;-)

Someone asked me recently and I said "A lady never tells her age"

My mother's version of that is, "A woman who will tell you her age will tell you anything, and *I* am not that kind of woman."

How people feel about asking and telling their age is going to vary from culture to culture. Ditto for their rent, salary, and who knows what else.

People hardly ever ask me my age, but they probably make assumptions about it all the time.

If people frequently ask you, it might be that they're some seeing things about you that point in different directions and they don't know what to make of that. e.g. You look baby-faced but hold a senior position. Or your music tastes are the same as those of typical 20-somethings, but you look more 40-something.

The other time when people seem to wonder about ages is in the context of a potential romantic relationship. The last time anyone asked me my age, it turned out it was because they were thinking about setting me up with their friend.

Orange Swan, I am totally stealing your mothers line. That's a good one! Everyone keeps asking me too now, and it's wigging me out. I'm in an odd age-misfit for most of the stuff I am doing daily, like droppingoff&pickingup a preschooler. I didn't pay much attention the first years what ages the other mothers are, but I realize that I'm ten years older than most of the moms now, with a few exceptions. It doesn't help score my age much when I dash into school wearing skeleton-jeans and a hoodie that turns into cat-ears when you pull it up, and then pretend to be a monster chasing the kids around while the other moms give me a tired look.

But yeah, I don't often answer the question. Mentally, it's like I'm still carrying a fake I.D. in my wallet but I haven't been carded since 2001. *cries*