It’s Good to be 29

Are you 29 years old and dreading the big three oh? Or are you having the time of your life? Statistics sway towards the latter with a recent survey of over 1500 Britons finding that 29 hear olds are the most popular age of all. When you’re 29 you’re likely to have an average of 80 friends – all the other age groups only have 64 pals.

New Girl’s roster of late twenties pals

Why are 29 year olds such hot property? The survey, conducted by Genius Gluten Free, claims that at this age people are regualrly in touch with college and school friends while also pursuing work friendships, hence all the WhatsApp groups. This is the part where our mother chimes in and asks are all those people on the Facebook really our friends? Could you trust them to help you move house? Or perjure themselves on the stand for you? We think 80 is a little bit high and will continue to wait for the word acquaintance to come back into fashion.

However the biggest takeaway from the survey related to workplace friendships. Apparently you’re more likely to meet friends at work than college. You tend to have more in common with your office quad pal than old friends from school. People are spending an increasing amount of time in work and the empathy that comes from sharing stressful experiences helps develop fast bonds. So next time you’re waiting for the office kettle to boil ask that colleague who seems cool enough if they’re up for some Friday drinks. You might have found a new pal for life.

Jeanne Sutton @jeannedesutun