Calculate age from birthdate

Beginner

Age calculations are common in many spreadsheets for eligibility checks, planning, and reporting.

In this sheet, each employee has a date of birth in column C. Your job is to calculate their current age in whole years.

DATEDIF returns the difference between two dates. For age, you want the difference from the birthdate to today.

Syntax:
=DATEDIF(start_date, end_date, unit)

Unit can be "D" for days, "M" for months, or "Y" for years.
If you want a quick refresher, see the DATEDIF function page.

What you need to do:

  1. Click cell D2.
  2. Write a formula using DATEDIF to calculate the employee’s age (in years) using:
    • the birthdate in the same row (column C)
    • TODAY() as the end date
  3. Press Enter.
  4. Fill the formula down from D2 through D7.

Need some help?

Hint 1

DATEDIF can return complete years. Use the unit code `"Y"` (in quotes) for years.

Hint 2

DATEDIF needs three arguments: start_date, end_date, and a unit. TODAY() is a good end_date when you want the current age.

Hint 3

In D2, your start_date should point to the birthdate in C2, and your end_date should be TODAY(). Then fill the formula down to D7.

Related function(s)
DATEDIFTODAYYEARDATEEDATE
More exercises
Date difference in monthsIntermediate
Find end of month with EOMONTHBeginner
Days between datesBeginner
Build a date from separate parts with DATEBeginner
Back to exercises overview