The category Deaths by age includes a series of subcategories of people who have died at a particular age, where the exact age of the person on the date of their death can be confirmed:

The age recorded is in solar years, on the Gregorian calendar, with the age of death being considered the age the person reached on the final birthday in his/her life.

In order for an article on a deceased person to qualify for inclusion in a category found in Category:Deaths by age, one of the following criteria must be met:

  • The exact date of birth and death must be provided, referenced by reliable sources. Simply stating the year for either one is insufficient, since this does not provide one's exact age. In the presence of the year, but the absence of dates, if one died after one's birthday in the year, the age is the year of death minus the year of birth. But if death occurred before one's birthday, the age is one year less.
  • The age must be provided by multiple reliable sources. A single source stating that one died at a certain age is insufficient, as these sources are not always accurate. It is not uncommon for a newspaper reporting one's death to be off by a year or more.
  • Ancient texts (such as the Bible) stating a person died at a certain age are insufficient. These are single sources that do not provide exact dates of birth and death, and are not accepted by all cultures around the world. A year in ancient times may have a differing definition from a present year. Also, official records often do not exist for people that died hundreds or thousands of years ago. An ancient text, along with another reliable source for verification, is considered sufficient for inclusion.