How old am I if I was born in 1988?
If you were born in 1988 you are 37 or 38 years old, depending on whether your birthday has already come round this year. Pick your exact date below for your age to the second — and for everything else 1988 says about you.
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Being born in 1988
Anyone born in 1988 turns 38 at some point during 2026. Until their birthday arrives they are still 37, which is why an age calculator that only knows the year can never give one answer. Enter the full date above and the number becomes exact, down to the second.
1988 makes you a Millennial, and in the Chinese calendar it was the Year of the Dragon.
What 1988 looked like
Rain Man won Best Picture and Rain Man was the biggest film at the box office. In the news, 1988 was the year of the Seoul Olympics.
The world in 1988
There were about 5.16 billion people alive, against roughly 8.25 billion today. Atmospheric CO₂ stood near 351 ppm, compared with about 427 ppm now. And money went further: $100 in 1988 bought roughly what $269 buys today.
Sport around 1988
The nearest Summer Olympics were held in Seoul in 1988. The closest World Cup was won by Argentina in 1986. Around then, the moment people still talk about was Ben Johnson is stripped of gold in Seoul.
What else you can work out from a 1988 birthday
Once you enter the exact day, the cards above fill in: the phase of the moon on the night you were born, your star sign and birthstone, how many people share your birthday, which famous people were born on it, your age in dog years using the real 2019 formula rather than the old “multiply by seven” myth, how far you have travelled around the sun, and which historical event your birth date sits closer to than it does to today.