Survey: Americans want to live to be 90

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OMAHA, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Each generation appears to disagree on what exactly "old" is, but all want to live until age 90, a U.S. survey indicates.

The survey by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion conducted for Home Instead Senior Care asked: "At what age do you consider someone to be old?"

-- Millennials, the youngest group, said age 62.

-- Gen Xers, born in the latter part of the 1960s and 70s, said 71.

-- Baby Boomers, born from 1946 up to 1964, said 77.

-- Greatest Generation, born 1901 to 1924, said 81.

The study, "Generation to Generation: Gauging the Golden Years," polled 1,235 Americans about their views on aging and found that overall men consider someone to be old at age 70 years, while women say it's 76.

Being "old" doesn't dampen the desire for a long life. Survey respondents from every generation would all like to live a long life -- to age 90 -- but most expect only to reach age 83.

That may be a tad optimistic because average life expectancy in the United States is age 78.4, the report said.

"There's no doubt that we're living in an aging world," Roger Baumgart, chief executive officer of Home Instead Senior Care, said in a statement.

The survey of 1,235 U.S. adults, conducted Sept. 26-Sept. 29, has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.