Lunar Age Calculator
Enter your birth date. The answer uses today's date and runs in your browser.
What Is Lunar Age?
Lunar age, called xusui (虚岁, “nominal age”) in Chinese, counts a newborn as 1 year old and adds a year at each Lunar New Year. In Chinese tradition it is how people counted age for centuries. Your birthday plays no part in it.
Because it follows the Chinese year, lunar age moves together with your sign. Everyone born in the same Chinese year shares an animal and the same lunar age, even if their birthdays are months apart. Use the Chinese zodiac calculator if you do not yet know your Chinese birth year.
How to Calculate Your Lunar Age
Lunar age is the current Chinese year, minus your Chinese birth year, plus 1. Your Chinese birth year is the calendar year only if you were born on or after that year’s Lunar New Year. Born earlier in January or February, it is the year before.
- Look up the Lunar New Year date for your birth year in the Chinese zodiac years chart.
- Born before that date? Your Chinese birth year is the year before your calendar year.
- Subtract your Chinese birth year from the current Chinese year and add 1.
Take someone born Feb 10, 1990. Lunar New Year 1990 fell on Jan 27, so their Chinese birth year is 1990. On Jan 1, 2027 the Chinese year is still 2026, so their lunar age is 2026 − 1990 + 1 = 37. It becomes 38 on Lunar New Year, Feb 6, 2027.
Lunar Age Examples for 2027
On Lunar New Year 2027, every lunar age goes up by one. The table shows five birthdays on either side of that day, next to the age in full years, so you can see the gap of one or two years.
| Born | Chinese year | Age on Jan 1, 2027 | Lunar age on Jan 1, 2027 | Lunar age on Feb 6, 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 20, 2025 | 2025, Snake | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Jul 4, 2010 | 2010, Tiger | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Feb 10, 1990 | 1990, Horse | 36 | 37 | 38 |
| Jan 15, 1990 | 1989, Snake | 36 | 38 | 39 |
| Dec 31, 1975 | 1975, Rabbit | 51 | 52 | 53 |
Lunar New Year 2027 is Feb 6, 2027. Every lunar age goes up by one that day.
The gap is widest for people born in January or early February, before Lunar New Year. They are a Chinese year behind in the calendar but already a year ahead in lunar age. If this is you, January and February Chinese zodiac explains which animal you are.
Lunar Age vs. Korean Age vs. International Age
Three systems are in use, and they differ in when a person gains a year. International age starts at 0 and adds a year on your birthday. Traditional Korean age starts at 1 and adds a year on January 1. Chinese lunar age starts at 1 and adds a year on Lunar New Year.
South Korea officially moved to international age for most legal and administrative uses in June 2023, so the Korean count is now mostly a social habit. Lunar age was never an official count in modern China, where most official uses follow international age.
Is Lunar Age Still Used?
Lunar age mostly lives on in tradition. Chinese horoscopes are read by Chinese year, and some families still count elders’ milestone birthdays in lunar age. For everything official, such as school, work and travel, people use age in full years.
The zodiac link is the useful part. Signs repeat every 12 years, so people of one sign are 12 lunar years apart. In 2027, the Year of the Goat, Goats are 1, 13, 25, 37, 49, 61, 73 and 85 once Lunar New Year arrives on Feb 6. In Chinese tradition the years you turn 13, 25, 37 and so on are your own sign years, called běnmìngnián, a year for extra care. See the Goat horoscope 2027 and the 2027 Chinese zodiac for what tradition says about that year, and Chinese New Year 2027 for the date itself.
