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How old is SpongeBob? I don't mean how old is the series, I mean what is SpongeBob's age if he were a real person. I ask because his age seems to be ambiguous in the show.

  • He has a full-time job
  • He has his own house
  • He is always referred to as a kid (especially in the movie)
  • He acts childish and immature
  • In one episode, he was pretending to be an adult/grown-up
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    Great question. He's old enough to drive, but I don't know what the law about that is underwater.
    – Crow T Robot
    Nov 11, 2014 at 19:19
  • @CrowTRobot you're right about not knowing the rules of underwater. If he is 13 as Walt said, then Mr Crabs is possibly violating child labor laws :)
    – DustinDavis
    Nov 11, 2014 at 19:47

2 Answers 2

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Well, SpongeBob has a date of birth: July 14, 1986. If we assume that the series takes place in our times, that would make him 28.

However, Bart and Lisa Simpson have been 8 and 10 for more than 20 years now. So if we assume that his age is constant in the show (which premiered in July 17, 1999), that would make him 13.

Is that data useful in this cartoon? Not really. We don't really know what rules fictional underwater realms play by, and to further confuse matters, I'm not even sure how relatively old SpongeBob is because, according to Wiki, the lifespan of a sea sponge varies greatly:

Sponges in temperate regions live for at most a few years, but some tropical species and perhaps some deep-ocean ones may live for 200 years or more.

However, it appears that the show's creator has kept SpongeBob's age vague on purpose:

Although SpongeBob's driver's license says his birthdate is July 14, 1986, Hillenburg joked that he is fifty in "sponge years". He explained that SpongeBob actually has no specific age, but that he is old enough to be on his own and still be going to boating school.

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  • +1 for the birth date, but great answer all around though. It sounds like he is both 28 (job, house) and 13 (childish nature) at the same time.
    – DustinDavis
    Nov 11, 2014 at 19:49
  • Hey, the Simpson kids also say and do things that are way beyond their years sometimes. So maybe you're right and it's some sort of compromise. :)
    – Walt
    Nov 11, 2014 at 19:53
  • SpongeBob is probably a Stylissa massa. I could only find that it lives for over 2 months.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Nov 12, 2014 at 4:14
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    This totally makes sense to me, my driver's license says 50, my wife says 11 going on 9, and when my back is OK I feel 25; when it hurts, more like 80.
    – CGCampbell
    Nov 12, 2014 at 17:36
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If he were the same age since the beginning then the bodyguard episode will make him 14 because they come to party for HIS birthday

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    Can you expand? How does the body guard episode make him 14? I've never seen the show so I don't understand the reference.
    – Ben Plont
    Jan 2, 2015 at 17:00
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    @BenPlont I think he based this on the other answer. If he's 13 in the other answer, then celebrating his birthday in the bodyguard episode would make him turn 14.
    – AER
    Mar 31, 2016 at 0:22

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