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

Because when you’re 10 a year is like 10% of your entire life so it feels like years are really long. When you’re 50 it’s quite a bit less so it feels like years fly by. Also there’s probably something to be said for things not changing very much year to year as you get older too, as you say.