Eli5: Why, if at all, does it seem like the years go quicker as you get older?

Question

I hear a lot of people making that remark, that the years go by quicker as you get older.
For me, at least, it seems like that’s only the case if nothing much changes in my life in that year.
To me, years seem to feel like they go slower if there’s lots of new/different things happening.

In: 348

Answer 1

When you’re 10 – a year is a 1/10th of your life
When you’re 25 – a year is 1/25th of your life
When you’re 50 – a year is 1/50th or your life

So the experience of a year is less and less time to your experience of your life as a whole.

It’s all perception. After 30, the years really do start to fly by and just keep getting faster and faster.