However, an objective assessment is one thing, subjective feeling another. Most Poles under forty consider themselves as young. When Poles queried by sociologists were asked to refer to their own experiences most of them who had not reached age 54 stated that they still feel young. In the opinion of most Poles, it overtakes us after we finish sixty. The boundaries for youth and old age set by those polled depended on their age, but also on their place of residence, education, material position and sex.
Women feel the passage of time more painfully than men do.
They also more often have the feeling that they already have said good-bye to youth. Defining oneself as old is also connected with low education. Poles with primary education most often said that their young years are behind them. Their contemporaries with a master's degree usually said of themselves that they are middle-aged. According to their own assessment, poor persons age faster.