[javascript] Calculate age given the birth date in the format YYYYMMDD

How can I calculate an age in years, given a birth date of format YYYYMMDD? Is it possible using the Date() function?

I am looking for a better solution than the one I am using now:

var dob = '19800810';_x000D_
var year = Number(dob.substr(0, 4));_x000D_
var month = Number(dob.substr(4, 2)) - 1;_x000D_
var day = Number(dob.substr(6, 2));_x000D_
var today = new Date();_x000D_
var age = today.getFullYear() - year;_x000D_
if (today.getMonth() < month || (today.getMonth() == month && today.getDate() < day)) {_x000D_
  age--;_x000D_
}_x000D_
alert(age);

With momentjs "fromNow" method, This allows you to work with formatted date, ie: 03/15/1968

var dob = document.getElementByID("dob"); var age = moment(dob.value).fromNow(true).replace(" years", "");

//fromNow(true) => suffix "ago" is not displayed //but we still have to get rid of "years";

As a prototype version

String.prototype.getAge = function() {
return moment(this.valueOf()).fromNow(true).replace(" years", "");

}

I believe that sometimes the readability is more important in this case. Unless we are validating 1000s of fields, this should be accurate and fast enough:

function is18orOlder(dateString) {
  const dob = new Date(dateString);
  const dobPlus18 = new Date(dob.getFullYear() + 18, dob.getMonth(), dob.getDate());
  
  return dobPlus18 .valueOf() <= Date.now();
}

// Testing:
console.log(is18orOlder('01/01/1910')); // true
console.log(is18orOlder('01/01/2050')); // false

// When I'm posting this on 10/02/2020, so:
console.log(is18orOlder('10/08/2002')); // true
console.log(is18orOlder('10/19/2002'))  // false

I like this approach instead of using a constant for how many ms are in a year, and later messing with the leap years, etc. Just letting the built-in Date to do the job.

Update, posting this snippet since one may found it useful. Since I'm enforcing a mask on the input field, to have the format of mm/dd/yyyy and already validating if the date is valid, in my case, this works too to validate 18+ years:

 function is18orOlder(dateString) {
   const [month, date, year] = value.split('/');
   return new Date(+year + 13, +month, +date).valueOf() <= Date.now();
}

All the answers I tested here (about half) think 2000-02-29 to 2001-02-28 is zero years, when it most likely should be 1 since 2000-02-29 to 2001-03-01 is 1 year and 1 day. Here is a getYearDiff function that fixes that. It only works where d0 < d1:

function getYearDiff(d0, d1) {

    d1 = d1 || new Date();

    var m = d0.getMonth();
    var years = d1.getFullYear() - d0.getFullYear();

    d0.setFullYear(d0.getFullYear() + years);

    if (d0.getMonth() != m) d0.setDate(0);

    return d0 > d1? --years : years;
}

Alternate solution, because why not:

function calculateAgeInYears (date) {
    var now = new Date();
    var current_year = now.getFullYear();
    var year_diff = current_year - date.getFullYear();
    var birthday_this_year = new Date(current_year, date.getMonth(), date.getDate());
    var has_had_birthday_this_year = (now >= birthday_this_year);

    return has_had_birthday_this_year
        ? year_diff
        : year_diff - 1;
}

I used this approach using logic instead of math. It's precise and quick. The parameters are the year, month and day of the person's birthday. It returns the person's age as an integer.

function calculateAge(year, month, day) {
        var currentDate = new Date();
        var currentYear = currentDate.getFullYear();
        var currentMonth = currentDate.getUTCMonth() + 1;
        var currentDay = currentDate.getUTCDate();
        // You need to treat the cases where the year, month or day hasn't arrived yet.
        var age = currentYear - year;
        if (currentMonth > month) {
            return age;
        } else {
            if (currentDay >= day) {
                return age;
            } else {
                age--;
                return age;
            }
        }
    }

see this example you get full year month day information from here

function getAge(dateString) {
    var today = new Date();
    var birthDate = new Date(dateString);
    var age = today.getFullYear() - birthDate.getFullYear();
    var m = today.getMonth() - birthDate.getMonth();
    var da = today.getDate() - birthDate.getDate();
    if (m < 0 || (m === 0 && today.getDate() < birthDate.getDate())) {
        age--;
    }
    if(m<0){
        m +=12;
    }
    if(da<0){
        da +=30;
    }
    return age+" years "+ Math.abs(m) + "months"+ Math.abs(da) + " days";
}
alert('age: ' + getAge("1987/08/31"));    
[http://jsfiddle.net/tapos00/2g70ue5y/][1]

This is my amended attempt (with a string passed in to function instead of a date object):

function calculateAge(dobString) {
    var dob = new Date(dobString);
    var currentDate = new Date();
    var currentYear = currentDate.getFullYear();
    var birthdayThisYear = new Date(currentYear, dob.getMonth(), dob.getDate());
    var age = currentYear - dob.getFullYear();

    if(birthdayThisYear > currentDate) {
        age--;
    }

    return age;
}

And usage:

console.log(calculateAge('1980-01-01'));

Clean one-liner solution using ES6:

const getAge = birthDate => Math.floor((new Date() - new Date(birthDate).getTime()) / 3.15576e+10)

// today is 2018-06-13
getAge('1994-06-14') // 23
getAge('1994-06-13') // 24

I am using a year of 365.25 days (0.25 because of leap years) which are 3.15576e+10 milliseconds (365.25 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000) respectively.

It has a few hours margin so depending on the use case it may not be the best option.

I've checked the examples showed before and they didn't worked in all cases, and because of this i made a script of my own. I tested this, and it works perfectly.

function getAge(birth) {
   var today = new Date();
   var curr_date = today.getDate();
   var curr_month = today.getMonth() + 1;
   var curr_year = today.getFullYear();

   var pieces = birth.split('/');
   var birth_date = pieces[0];
   var birth_month = pieces[1];
   var birth_year = pieces[2];

   if (curr_month == birth_month && curr_date >= birth_date) return parseInt(curr_year-birth_year);
   if (curr_month == birth_month && curr_date < birth_date) return parseInt(curr_year-birth_year-1);
   if (curr_month > birth_month) return parseInt(curr_year-birth_year);
   if (curr_month < birth_month) return parseInt(curr_year-birth_year-1);
}

var age = getAge('18/01/2011');
alert(age);

One more possible solution with moment.js:

var moment = require('moment');
var startDate = new Date();
var endDate = new Date();
endDate.setDate(endDate.getFullYear() + 5); // Add 5 years to second date
console.log(moment.duration(endDate - startDate).years()); // This should returns 5

You may use this for age restriction in your form -

function dobvalidator(birthDateString){
    strs = birthDateString.split("-");
    var dd = strs[0];
    var mm = strs[1];
    var yy = strs[2];

    var d = new Date();
    var ds = d.getDate();
    var ms = d.getMonth();
    var ys = d.getFullYear();
    var accepted_age = 18;

    var days = ((accepted_age * 12) * 30) + (ms * 30) + ds;
    var age = (((ys - yy) * 12) * 30) + ((12 - mm) * 30) + parseInt(30 - dd);

    if((days - age) <= '0'){
        console.log((days - age));
        alert('You are at-least ' + accepted_age);
    }else{
        console.log((days - age));
        alert('You are not at-least ' + accepted_age);
    }
}

With momentjs:

/* The difference, in years, between NOW and 2012-05-07 */
moment().diff(moment('20120507', 'YYYYMMDD'), 'years')

Here's the simplest, most accurate solution I could come up with:

Date.prototype.getAge = function (date) {
    if (!date) date = new Date();
    return ~~((date.getFullYear() + date.getMonth() / 100
    + date.getDate() / 10000) - (this.getFullYear() + 
    this.getMonth() / 100 + this.getDate() / 10000));
}

And here is a sample that will consider Feb 29 -> Feb 28 a year.

Date.prototype.getAge = function (date) {
    if (!date) date = new Date();
    var feb = (date.getMonth() == 1 || this.getMonth() == 1);
    return ~~((date.getFullYear() + date.getMonth() / 100 + 
        (feb && date.getDate() == 29 ? 28 : date.getDate())
        / 10000) - (this.getFullYear() + this.getMonth() / 100 + 
        (feb && this.getDate() == 29 ? 28 : this.getDate()) 
        / 10000));
}

It even works with negative age!

$("#birthday").change(function (){


var val=this.value;

var current_year=new Date().getFullYear();
if(val!=null){
    var Split = val.split("-");
    var birth_year=parseInt(Split[2]);

    if(parseInt(current_year)-parseInt(birth_year)<parseInt(18)){

  $("#maritial_status").attr('disabled', 'disabled');
        var val2= document.getElementById("maritial_status");
        val2.value = "Not Married";
        $("#anniversary").attr('disabled', 'disabled');
        var val1= document.getElementById("anniversary");
        val1.value = "NA";

    }else{
        $("#maritial_status").attr('disabled', false);
        $("#anniversary").attr('disabled', false);

    }
}
});

Important: This answer doesn't provide an 100% accurate answer, it is off by around 10-20 hours depending on the date.

There are no better solutions ( not in these answers anyway ). - naveen

I of course couldn't resist the urge to take up the challenge and make a faster and shorter birthday calculator than the current accepted solution. The main point for my solution, is that math is fast, so instead of using branching, and the date model javascript provides to calculate a solution we use the wonderful math

The answer looks like this, and runs ~65% faster than naveen's plus it's much shorter:

function calcAge(dateString) {
  var birthday = +new Date(dateString);
  return ~~((Date.now() - birthday) / (31557600000));
}

The magic number: 31557600000 is 24 * 3600 * 365.25 * 1000 Which is the length of a year, the length of a year is 365 days and 6 hours which is 0.25 day. In the end i floor the result which gives us the final age.

Here is the benchmarks: http://jsperf.com/birthday-calculation

To support OP's data format you can replace +new Date(dateString);
with +new Date(d.substr(0, 4), d.substr(4, 2)-1, d.substr(6, 2));

If you can come up with a better solution please share! :-)

Calculate age from date picker

         $('#ContentPlaceHolder1_dob').on('changeDate', function (ev) {
            $(this).datepicker('hide');

            //alert($(this).val());
            var date = formatDate($(this).val()); // ('2010/01/18') to ("1990/4/16"))
            var age = getAge(date);

            $("#ContentPlaceHolder1_age").val(age);
        });


    function formatDate(input) {
        var datePart = input.match(/\d+/g),
        year = datePart[0], // get only two digits
        month = datePart[1], day = datePart[2];
        return day + '/' + month + '/' + year;
    }

    // alert(formatDate('2010/01/18'));


    function getAge(dateString) {
        var today = new Date();
        var birthDate = new Date(dateString);
        var age = today.getFullYear() - birthDate.getFullYear();
        var m = today.getMonth() - birthDate.getMonth();
        if (m < 0 || (m === 0 && today.getDate() < birthDate.getDate())) {
            age--;
        }
        return age;
    }

Here's my solution, just pass in a parseable date:

function getAge(birth) {
  ageMS = Date.parse(Date()) - Date.parse(birth);
  age = new Date();
  age.setTime(ageMS);
  ageYear = age.getFullYear() - 1970;

  return ageYear;

  // ageMonth = age.getMonth(); // Accurate calculation of the month part of the age
  // ageDay = age.getDate();    // Approximate calculation of the day part of the age
}

To test whether the birthday already passed or not, I define a helper function Date.prototype.getDoY, which effectively returns the day number of the year. The rest is pretty self-explanatory.

Date.prototype.getDoY = function() {
    var onejan = new Date(this.getFullYear(), 0, 1);
    return Math.floor(((this - onejan) / 86400000) + 1);
};

function getAge(birthDate) {
    function isLeap(year) {
        return year % 4 == 0 && (year % 100 != 0 || year % 400 == 0);
    }

    var now = new Date(),
        age = now.getFullYear() - birthDate.getFullYear(),
        doyNow = now.getDoY(),
        doyBirth = birthDate.getDoY();

    // normalize day-of-year in leap years
    if (isLeap(now.getFullYear()) && doyNow > 58 && doyBirth > 59)
        doyNow--;

    if (isLeap(birthDate.getFullYear()) && doyNow > 58 && doyBirth > 59)
        doyBirth--;

    if (doyNow <= doyBirth)
        age--;  // birthday not yet passed this year, so -1

    return age;
};

var myBirth = new Date(2001, 6, 4);
console.log(getAge(myBirth));

function getAge(dateString) {

    var dates = dateString.split("-");
    var d = new Date();

    var userday = dates[0];
    var usermonth = dates[1];
    var useryear = dates[2];

    var curday = d.getDate();
    var curmonth = d.getMonth()+1;
    var curyear = d.getFullYear();

    var age = curyear - useryear;

    if((curmonth < usermonth) || ( (curmonth == usermonth) && curday < userday   )){

        age--;

    }

    return age;
}

To get the age when european date has entered:

getAge('16-03-1989')

The below answer is the way to go if the age is just for display purposes (Might not be 100% accurate) but atleast it is easier to wrap your head around

function age(birthdate){
  return Math.floor((new Date().getTime() - new Date(birthdate).getTime()) / 3.154e+10)
}

Try this:

$('#Datepicker').change(function(){

var $bef = $('#Datepicker').val();
var $today = new Date();
var $before = new Date($bef);
var $befores = $before.getFullYear();
var $todays = $today.getFullYear();
var $bmonth = $before.getMonth();
var $tmonth = $today.getMonth();
var $bday = $before.getDate();
var $tday = $today.getDate();

if ($bmonth>$tmonth)
{$('#age').val($todays-$befores);}

if ($bmonth==$tmonth)
{   
if ($tday > $bday) {$('#age').val($todays-$befores-1);}
else if ($tday <= $bday) {$('#age').val($todays-$befores);}
}
else if ($bmonth<$tmonth)
{ $('#age').val($todays-$befores-1);} 
})

var now = DateTime.Now;
var age = DateTime.Now.Year - dob.Year;
if (now.Month < dob.Month || now.Month == dob.Month && now.Day < dob.Day) age--;

Two more options:

// Int Age to Date as string YYY-mm-dd
function age_to_date(age)
{
    try {
        var d = new Date();
        var new_d = '';
        d.setFullYear(d.getFullYear() - Math.abs(age));
        new_d = d.getFullYear() + '-' + d.getMonth() + '-' + d.getDate();

        return new_d;
    } catch(err) {
        console.log(err.message);
    }
}
// Date string (YYY-mm-dd) to Int age (years old)
function date_to_age(date)
{
    try {
        var today = new Date();
        var d = new Date(date);

        var year = today.getFullYear() - d.getFullYear();
        var month = today.getMonth() - d.getMonth();
        var day = today.getDate() - d.getDate();
        var carry = 0;

        if (year < 0)
            return 0;
        if (month <= 0 && day <= 0)
            carry -= 1;

        var age = parseInt(year);
        age += carry;

        return Math.abs(age);
    } catch(err) {
        console.log(err.message);
    }
}

If you need the age in months (days are approximation):

birthDay=28;
birthMonth=7;
birthYear=1974;

var  today = new Date();
currentDay=today.getUTCDate();
currentMonth=today.getUTCMonth() + 1;
currentYear=today.getFullYear();

//calculate the age in months:
Age = (currentYear-birthYear)*12 + (currentMonth-birthMonth) + (currentDay-birthDay)/30;

function change(){
    setTimeout(function(){
        var dateObj  =      new Date();
                    var month    =      dateObj.getUTCMonth() + 1; //months from 1-12
                    var day      =      dateObj.getUTCDate();
                    var year     =      dateObj.getUTCFullYear();  
                    var newdate  =      year + "/" + month + "/" + day;
                    var entered_birthdate        =   document.getElementById('birth_dates').value;
                    var birthdate                =   new Date(entered_birthdate);
                    var birth_year               =   birthdate.getUTCFullYear();
                    var birth_month              =   birthdate.getUTCMonth() + 1;
                    var birth_date               =   birthdate.getUTCDate();
                    var age_year                =    (year-birth_year);
                    var age_month               =    (month-birth_month);
                    var age_date                =    ((day-birth_date) < 0)?(31+(day-birth_date)):(day-birth_date);
                    var test                    =    (birth_year>year)?true:((age_year===0)?((month<birth_month)?true:((month===birth_month)?(day < birth_date):false)):false) ;
                   if (test === true || (document.getElementById("birth_dates").value=== "")){
                        document.getElementById("ages").innerHTML = "";
                    }                    else{
                        var age                     =    (age_year > 1)?age_year:(   ((age_year=== 1 )&&(age_month >= 0))?age_year:((age_month < 0)?(age_month+12):((age_month > 1)?age_month:      (  ((age_month===1) && (day>birth_date) ) ? age_month:age_date)          )    )); 
                        var ages                    =    ((age===age_date)&&(age!==age_month)&&(age!==age_year))?(age_date+"days"):((((age===age_month+12)||(age===age_month)&&(age!==age_year))?(age+"months"):age_year+"years"));
                        document.getElementById("ages").innerHTML = ages;
                  }
                }, 30);

};

Yet another solution:

/**
 * Calculate age by birth date.
 *
 * @param int birthYear Year as YYYY.
 * @param int birthMonth Month as number from 1 to 12.
 * @param int birthDay Day as number from 1 to 31.
 * @return int
 */
function getAge(birthYear, birthMonth, birthDay) {
  var today = new Date();
  var birthDate = new Date(birthYear, birthMonth-1, birthDay);
  var age = today.getFullYear() - birthDate.getFullYear();
  var m = today.getMonth() - birthDate.getMonth();
  if (m < 0 || (m === 0 && today.getDate() < birthDate.getDate())) {
    age--;
  }
  return age;
}

I have a pretty answer although it's not my code. Unfortunately I forgot the original post.

function calculateAge(y, m, d) {
    var _birth = parseInt("" + y + affixZero(m) + affixZero(d));
    var  today = new Date();
    var _today = parseInt("" + today.getFullYear() + affixZero(today.getMonth() + 1) + affixZero(today.getDate()));
    return parseInt((_today - _birth) / 10000);
}
function affixZero(int) {
    if (int < 10) int = "0" + int;
    return "" + int;
}
var age = calculateAge(1980, 4, 22);
alert(age);

Works perfect for me, guys.

getAge(birthday) {
    const millis = Date.now() - Date.parse(birthday);
    return new Date(millis).getFullYear() - 1970;
}

here is a simple way of calculating age:

//dob date dd/mm/yy 
var d = 01/01/1990


//today
//date today string format 
var today = new Date(); // i.e wed 04 may 2016 15:12:09 GMT
//todays year
var todayYear = today.getFullYear();
// today month
var todayMonth = today.getMonth();
//today date
var todayDate = today.getDate();

//dob
//dob parsed as date format   
var dob = new Date(d);
// dob year
var dobYear = dob.getFullYear();
// dob month
var dobMonth = dob.getMonth();
//dob date
var dobDate = dob.getDate();

var yearsDiff = todayYear - dobYear ;
var age;

if ( todayMonth < dobMonth ) 
 { 
  age = yearsDiff - 1; 
 }
else if ( todayMonth > dobMonth ) 
 {
  age = yearsDiff ; 
 }

else //if today month = dob month
 { if ( todayDate < dobDate ) 
  {
   age = yearsDiff - 1;
  }
    else 
    {
     age = yearsDiff;
    }
 }

I am a bit too late but I found this to be the simplest way to calculate a birth date.

Hopefully this will help.

function init() {
  writeYears("myage", 0, Age());

}

function Age() {
  var birthday = new Date(1997, 02, 01), //Year, month-1 , day.
    today = new Date(),
    one_year = 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 365;
  return Math.floor((today.getTime() - birthday.getTime()) / one_year);
}

function writeYears(id, current, maximum) {
  document.getElementById(id).innerHTML = current;

  if (current < maximum) {
    setTimeout(function() {
      writeYears(id, ++current, maximum);
    }, Math.sin(current / maximum) * 200);
  }
}
init()

<span id="myage"></span>

I know this is a very old thread but I wanted to put in this implementation that I wrote for finding the age which I believe is much more accurate.

var getAge = function(year,month,date){
    var today = new Date();
    var dob = new Date();
    dob.setFullYear(year);
    dob.setMonth(month-1);
    dob.setDate(date);
    var timeDiff = today.valueOf() - dob.valueOf();
    var milliInDay = 24*60*60*1000;
    var noOfDays = timeDiff / milliInDay;
    var daysInYear = 365.242;
    return  ( noOfDays / daysInYear ) ;
}

Ofcourse you could adapt this to fit in other formats of getting the parameters. Hope this helps someone looking for a better solution.

I think that could be simply like that:

function age(dateString){
    let birth = new Date(dateString);
    let now = new Date();
    let beforeBirth = ((() => {birth.setDate(now.getDate());birth.setMonth(now.getMonth()); return birth.getTime()})() < birth.getTime()) ? 0 : 1;
    return now.getFullYear() - birth.getFullYear() - beforeBirth;
}

age('09/20/1981');
//35

Works also with a timestamp

age(403501000000)
//34

I've did some updated to one previous answer.

var calculateAge = function(dob) {
    var days = function(date) {
            return 31*date.getMonth() + date.getDate();
        },
        d = new Date(dob*1000),
        now = new Date();

    return now.getFullYear() - d.getFullYear() - ( measureDays(now) < measureDays(d));
}

I hope that helps :D

That's the most elegant way for me:

const getAge = (birthDateString) => {_x000D_
  const today = new Date();_x000D_
  const birthDate = new Date(birthDateString);_x000D_
_x000D_
  const yearsDifference = today.getFullYear() - birthDate.getFullYear();_x000D_
_x000D_
  if (_x000D_
    today.getMonth() < birthDate.getMonth() ||_x000D_
    (today.getMonth() === birthDate.getMonth() && today.getDate() < birthDate.getDate())_x000D_
  ) {_x000D_
    return yearsDifference - 1;_x000D_
  }_x000D_
_x000D_
  return yearsDifference;_x000D_
};_x000D_
_x000D_
console.log(getAge('2018-03-12'));

Adopting from naveen's and original OP's posts I ended up with a reusable method stub that accepts both strings and / or JS Date objects.

I named it gregorianAge() because this calculation gives exactly how we denote age using Gregorian calendar. i.e. Not counting the end year if month and day is before the month and day of the birth year.

/**_x000D_
 * Calculates human age in years given a birth day. Optionally ageAtDate_x000D_
 * can be provided to calculate age at a specific date_x000D_
 *_x000D_
 * @param string|Date Object birthDate_x000D_
 * @param string|Date Object ageAtDate optional_x000D_
 * @returns integer Age between birthday and a given date or today_x000D_
 */_x000D_
function gregorianAge(birthDate, ageAtDate) {_x000D_
  // convert birthDate to date object if already not_x000D_
  if (Object.prototype.toString.call(birthDate) !== '[object Date]')_x000D_
    birthDate = new Date(birthDate);_x000D_
_x000D_
  // use today's date if ageAtDate is not provided_x000D_
  if (typeof ageAtDate == "undefined")_x000D_
    ageAtDate = new Date();_x000D_
_x000D_
  // convert ageAtDate to date object if already not_x000D_
  else if (Object.prototype.toString.call(ageAtDate) !== '[object Date]')_x000D_
    ageAtDate = new Date(ageAtDate);_x000D_
_x000D_
  // if conversion to date object fails return null_x000D_
  if (ageAtDate == null || birthDate == null)_x000D_
    return null;_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_
  var _m = ageAtDate.getMonth() - birthDate.getMonth();_x000D_
_x000D_
  // answer: ageAt year minus birth year less one (1) if month and day of_x000D_
  // ageAt year is before month and day of birth year_x000D_
  return (ageAtDate.getFullYear()) - birthDate.getFullYear() _x000D_
  - ((_m < 0 || (_m === 0 && ageAtDate.getDate() < birthDate.getDate())) ? 1 : 0)_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
// Below is for the attached snippet_x000D_
_x000D_
function showAge() {_x000D_
  $('#age').text(gregorianAge($('#dob').val()))_x000D_
}_x000D_
_x000D_
$(function() {_x000D_
  $(".datepicker").datepicker();_x000D_
  showAge();_x000D_
});

<link rel="stylesheet" href="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.11.4/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css">_x000D_
<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>_x000D_
<script src="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.11.4/jquery-ui.js"></script>_x000D_
_x000D_
DOB:_x000D_
<input name="dob" value="12/31/1970" id="dob" class="datepicker" onChange="showAge()" /> AGE: <span id="age"><span>

Some time ago I made a function with that purpose:

function getAge(birthDate) {
  var now = new Date();

  function isLeap(year) {
    return year % 4 == 0 && (year % 100 != 0 || year % 400 == 0);
  }

  // days since the birthdate    
  var days = Math.floor((now.getTime() - birthDate.getTime())/1000/60/60/24);
  var age = 0;
  // iterate the years
  for (var y = birthDate.getFullYear(); y <= now.getFullYear(); y++){
    var daysInYear = isLeap(y) ? 366 : 365;
    if (days >= daysInYear){
      days -= daysInYear;
      age++;
      // increment the age only if there are available enough days for the year.
    }
  }
  return age;
}

It takes a Date object as input, so you need to parse the 'YYYYMMDD' formatted date string:

var birthDateStr = '19840831',
    parts = birthDateStr.match(/(\d{4})(\d{2})(\d{2})/),
    dateObj = new Date(parts[1], parts[2]-1, parts[3]); // months 0-based!

getAge(dateObj); // 26

Get the age (years, months and days) from the date of birth with javascript

Function calcularEdad (years, months and days)

function calcularEdad(fecha) {
        // Si la fecha es correcta, calculamos la edad

        if (typeof fecha != "string" && fecha && esNumero(fecha.getTime())) {
            fecha = formatDate(fecha, "yyyy-MM-dd");
        }

        var values = fecha.split("-");
        var dia = values[2];
        var mes = values[1];
        var ano = values[0];

        // cogemos los valores actuales
        var fecha_hoy = new Date();
        var ahora_ano = fecha_hoy.getYear();
        var ahora_mes = fecha_hoy.getMonth() + 1;
        var ahora_dia = fecha_hoy.getDate();

        // realizamos el calculo
        var edad = (ahora_ano + 1900) - ano;
        if (ahora_mes < mes) {
            edad--;
        }
        if ((mes == ahora_mes) && (ahora_dia < dia)) {
            edad--;
        }
        if (edad > 1900) {
            edad -= 1900;
        }

        // calculamos los meses
        var meses = 0;

        if (ahora_mes > mes && dia > ahora_dia)
            meses = ahora_mes - mes - 1;
        else if (ahora_mes > mes)
            meses = ahora_mes - mes
        if (ahora_mes < mes && dia < ahora_dia)
            meses = 12 - (mes - ahora_mes);
        else if (ahora_mes < mes)
            meses = 12 - (mes - ahora_mes + 1);
        if (ahora_mes == mes && dia > ahora_dia)
            meses = 11;

        // calculamos los dias
        var dias = 0;
        if (ahora_dia > dia)
            dias = ahora_dia - dia;
        if (ahora_dia < dia) {
            ultimoDiaMes = new Date(ahora_ano, ahora_mes - 1, 0);
            dias = ultimoDiaMes.getDate() - (dia - ahora_dia);
        }

        return edad + " años, " + meses + " meses y " + dias + " días";
    }

Function esNumero

function esNumero(strNumber) {
    if (strNumber == null) return false;
    if (strNumber == undefined) return false;
    if (typeof strNumber === "number" && !isNaN(strNumber)) return true;
    if (strNumber == "") return false;
    if (strNumber === "") return false;
    var psInt, psFloat;
    psInt = parseInt(strNumber);
    psFloat = parseFloat(strNumber);
    return !isNaN(strNumber) && !isNaN(psFloat);
}

I just had to write this function for myself - the accepted answer is fairly good but IMO could use some cleanup. This takes a unix timestamp for dob because that was my requirement but could be quickly adapted to use a string:

var getAge = function(dob) {
    var measureDays = function(dateObj) {
            return 31*dateObj.getMonth()+dateObj.getDate();
        },
        d = new Date(dob*1000),
        now = new Date();

    return now.getFullYear() - d.getFullYear() - (measureDays(now) < measureDays(d));
}

Notice I've used a flat value of 31 in my measureDays function. All the calculation cares about is that the "day-of-year" be a monotonically increasing measure of the timestamp.

If using a javascript timestamp or string, obviously you'll want to remove the factor of 1000.

This is my modification:

  function calculate_age(date) {
     var today = new Date();
     var today_month = today.getMonth() + 1; //STRANGE NUMBERING //January is 0!
     var age = today.getYear() - date.getYear();

     if ((today_month > date.getMonth() || ((today_month == date.getMonth()) && (today.getDate() < date.getDate())))) {
       age--;
     }

    return age;
  };

Try this.

function getAge(dateString) {
    var today = new Date();
    var birthDate = new Date(dateString);
    var age = today.getFullYear() - birthDate.getFullYear();
    var m = today.getMonth() - birthDate.getMonth();
    if (m < 0 || (m === 0 && today.getDate() < birthDate.getDate())) {
        age--;
    }
    return age;
}

I believe the only thing that looked crude on your code was the substr part.

Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/codeandcloud/n33RJ/

function age()
{
    var birthdate = $j('#birthDate').val(); // in   "mm/dd/yyyy" format
    var senddate = $j('#expireDate').val(); // in   "mm/dd/yyyy" format
    var x = birthdate.split("/");    
    var y = senddate.split("/");
    var bdays = x[1];
    var bmonths = x[0];
    var byear = x[2];
    //alert(bdays);
    var sdays = y[1];
    var smonths = y[0];
    var syear = y[2];
    //alert(sdays);

    if(sdays < bdays)
    {
        sdays = parseInt(sdays) + 30;
        smonths = parseInt(smonths) - 1;
        //alert(sdays);
        var fdays = sdays - bdays;
        //alert(fdays);
    }
    else{
        var fdays = sdays - bdays;
    }

    if(smonths < bmonths)
    {
        smonths = parseInt(smonths) + 12;
        syear = syear - 1;
        var fmonths = smonths - bmonths;
    }
    else
    {
        var fmonths = smonths - bmonths;
    }

    var fyear = syear - byear;
    document.getElementById('patientAge').value = fyear+' years '+fmonths+' months '+fdays+' days';
}