How unusual is it to have all four grandparents alive?

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A friend of mine is 31 and has all four of her grandparents. They’re all in their late 80s. I said to her that must be quite rare but she said she’d never thought of it like that.

I grew up with 3, one died when my dad was little, so years before I was born.

They died when I was aged 21, 26 and 36.

My kids have grown up with 3 actual grandparents and one step granny.
Kids are late teens and 3 are still alive. But all 3 are in their 80s.

I think some depends on when you get married/had kids. My grandparents all married and had kids late (aged 30+) my parents got married and had kids early (early 20s) but dh and I were late (kids aged 35+)

It depends so much on the gap between the generations.

My Dsis was the youngest child of a youngest child. When she was born, her two surviving grandparents were 81 and 82 respectively. If her eldest grandparent had still been alive, he would have been 91 when she was born.

Her eldest cousin had two of those grandparents in common, but they were 61 and 71 (and both still alive) when he was born.

The class thing is interesting. In general, I think richer people live longer on average. However, conversely they probably have children later in average. Therefore I’m not sure whether the working or middle classes are more likely to have all 4 alive! Maybe these two factors cancel each other out and it makes no difference as a result.

I knew all of mine, but they’d all died by the time I was 21.

Lost mine when I was aged:

11
23
25 - remaining two.

I'd say it's pretty rare. One of mine died when I was 14, the next two in my early 30s, the last one is still alive and I'm nearly 40. I remember all 4 of my great grandparents on my mother's side but they did all die before I was a teen. Dh lost all but one grandparent before he was 15.

I had all my grandparents until I was 39. I didn't realise it was unusual either until a friend mentioned it.

I think it is.

I never had any, all 4 died before my parents even met.

I was 17 when the first one died, 42 for the last

Two of mine died before I was born. (One was very young) and the other two were gone by the time I was 14.

My husband is 46 and still has a grandmother alive.

I had all four grandparents when I was 30.
My last grandparent died when I was 42 (he lived until his early 90s). I didn’t realise it was unusual to have all my grandparents age 30 until other people commented on it.

Mine were all dead before I was in my mid teens, one passed away very young so even my parent never met them. The remaining 3 were pretty old when they passed away - 80s or later? They seemed old to me then anyway!

i had all four grandparents until 21, a great grandparent until I was 19. Felt quite unusual. By 30 I only had one grandparent. My (very much younger) cousin only had his grandads alive by the time he was born, and both of those had died by the time he’s started school.

Mine started passing when I was about 12. I had two until I was forty and my remaining GP died when I was 44.

When I was 31, I had no grandparents and only 1 parent alive. My dc are primary school age and only have 1 grandparent!

At her age I had no grandparents, and one parent, and two years later lost my only sibling. So I’d say she’s doing fairly well.

I had 4 grandparents and no great grandparents when I was born, one grandfather died when I was 9, a grandmother died when I was 15. I was about 23 when they were all dead.

I only had 1 after the age of 2. Both maternal died before I was born. Paternal gm died when I was 2. Gd when I was early 20s.

I lost my first grandparent at 12, my last at 43. My Dc's 11 & 15 only have one grandparent alive.

I was lucky enough to have all 4 until I was 24. I’m in my mid 30s now and still have my Gran who is only 84 and still very young in her mind. My DC therefore have a great grandparent which is lovely and magical for Gran, who adores children. I had 1 great grandparent until I was about 7.

I think the societal shift toward older parents will make this much more unusual.

I was born with 3 living grandparents, but had only one living grandparent from the age of 7 (she died when I was 27).

Both of my parents' mothers died when my parents were still children so I was never going to have 4 Grandparents. I met (now) DH when he was 24, and only one of his Grandparents was still alive - and she was 95.
My own DS has been to 3 out of 4 of his grandparents' funerals in the last 10 years (so he was aged 18 +) His one remaining GP is 96.

So I'd say it's very unusual for your friend to still have all 4 at 31.

I am 44 and still have a grandparent who is 91. As a child I had all four grandparents and two great grandparents who lived to 95 and 99. One grandad died young (before the great grandparents) at 60, then the others at 77 (grandad) and 84 (grandma).

I have a friend who isn’t even 40 and her and her husband only have one parent left between them, let alone any grandparents. Her children are little and growing up with only one grandma. That seems pretty unusual now that people are generally living longer.

DH has no remaining grandparents at 37. I lost my first grandparent 2 years ago at 33. Until I was 11 I had a great grandparent too. My grandparents are all early 80s and in decent health so I can easily see me hitting 40 with grandparents alive.

My family tend to have children early-mid 20s, however DHs family had lots of children, and his parents were the youngest so his grandparents were much older to start with.

@Blueybanditbingochilli I am an older parent (44 with 2 and 6 year olds) but my kids have 4 active grandparents and a great grandparent. If they have children late like I did (not by choice - 6 years infertility delayed things) then I will be nearly 80 before becoming a grandma. That does make me feel sad, but maybe I will be lucky as many of the women on both sides of my family lived to 90+ in good health.