This is from the “Accounting Makes Cents” podcast episode #107 released on Monday, 23 February 2026.

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So I had a birthday recently and it made me think. Not about getting older in the dramatic sense. Just about timing. About where I am. About what I’ve done. About what I haven’t done yet.

Jump to show notes.

Jump to resources and links.

And inevitably, it brought me back to something I hear all the time in the world of professional studies — especially with qualifications like CIMA.

‘Am I starting too late?’
‘Should I have finished by now?’
‘Is there a right age to qualify?’

We don’t talk about it openly, but age sits quietly in the background when people decide whether to begin — or continue — a professional qualification.

So today, I want to unpack that. Not emotionally. Not hypothetically. But practically.

What does the data actually say about age in professional accountancy?
And more importantly, what does it not say?

Data on age and professional qualifications

Okay, so I had that birthday thought, and then I went down the rabbit hole of ‘what does the internet say about age and professional qualifications?’

You might expect there to be a clear age chart for CIMA students somewhere, but the reality is there isn’t a tidy, official age breakdown published by CIMA itself. Instead, what we do have are a few credible pieces of data and commentary that give us context.

First up is a summary from the Financial Reporting Council’s Annual Key Facts & Trends Report that was released a while back. This report looks at students across major accounting bodies — so it includes CIMA alongside others like ACCA and ICAEW.

According to that 2023 summary:

• Around 76 % of all accountancy students worldwide were aged 34 or under in the combined dataset, compared with about 78% in 2019. That suggests a slight shift, but still shows most students are younger than 35.
• Within that group, a significant portion — almost 40 % — were under 25, though again this is across multiple bodies.

These aren’t CIMA-only numbers, but they do give us a profession-wide benchmark.

I also found another blog article produced by Counted Recruitment in 2022 talking about the different students or studiers as they were called in that article. The blog was titled What Age Do People Qualify? 34% newly qualified professionals were CIMA qualified, as compared to ACCA, ACA, QBE.

According to the blog article, there are 2 significant age groups that CIMA students qualify in. The #1 age group was 29-30, and the next one was 25-26. 82% were qualified by the age of 30. If we were to look at the different accounting bodies, on average, the median age to qualify for ACAs was 24, ACCA at 27 and CIMA at 29.

Now here’s the key: this data doesn’t say that you must be 29 to be successful, or that starting later somehow disqualifies you from a career path. It’s just a statistical snapshot — a range of when people have completed their studies.

What’s more interesting is seeing how wide that range is — from early 20s into 40 — which suggests that people are completing CIMA at almost every stage of life.

I’ll provide the links to these reports and blog articles on the show notes and episode transcript on my blog.

Here’s why age ain’t nothing but a number

Now here’s the important parts.

Number 1, data tells us trends. It does not tell us destiny.

Yes — the numbers from Counted Recruitment show a median qualification age of 29 for CIMA. Yes, a large percentage qualify before 30.

But here’s what that doesn’t mean.

It doesn’t mean 31 is late. It doesn’t mean 35 is behind. It doesn’t mean 40 is unrealistic.

It simply means that many people start their careers in accounting in their early 20s — often through graduate schemes — and follow a fairly linear path. That’s one route.

But it’s not the only route.

In a world where so many of us feel age looming over decisions like this, that kind of range is reassuring.

Number 2, professional qualifications like CIMA are different from traditional degrees. They’re flexible. They’re modular. They’re often taken while working.

Which means life plays a role.

Some people start at 22. Some pivot at 32. Some reinvent at 42.

And that variation doesn’t show up as a headline — but it’s absolutely present in the range.

If anything, the fact that people qualify anywhere from their early 20s into their late 30s — and beyond — tells us something powerful.

This isn’t a qualification locked to youth. It’s a qualification tied to commitment. And those are two very different things.

So, when we say ‘Am I too old?’ what we’re often really asking is:

• Will I look out of place?
• Will employers judge me?
• Have I missed my window?

But here’s what the hiring market actually tends to value: experience, resilience, commercial awareness. Those aren’t age-limited qualities. In fact, sometimes they’re stronger precisely because you didn’t take the straight line.

So when I say ‘Age ain’t nothing but a number,’ I don’t mean age doesn’t matter at all. It matters in the sense that it shapes your experiences. But it doesn’t define your capability. It doesn’t close the door. And it definitely doesn’t disqualify you from starting something ambitious.

Conclusion

When I had that birthday recently, it wasn’t the number that stayed with me — it was the way we attach meaning to numbers. Especially in our careers. We build invisible deadlines. We compare ourselves to where we think we should be. And when we fall outside that imagined timeline, we hesitate.

But the data we’ve talked about today — including the insights from Counted Recruitment — shows something important. There isn’t one age at which people qualify. There’s a spread. Early twenties through to late thirties and beyond.

That tells me this isn’t about age — it’s about readiness. Professional qualifications are more about consistency. They don’t measure how quickly you started — they measure whether you stayed the course.

So if age has been sitting in the back of your mind while you’ve been considering starting — or finishing — this is your reminder that it’s not a countdown clock.

It’s just context.

Show notes simplified

In this episode, MJ the tutor explores what data says about when people start and finish their professional studies, explains why the “right age” is a myth, and why commitment matters more than numbers.

Resources and links

Counted Recruitment – What Age Do People Qualify?
Financial Reporting Council Report – Key Facts and Trends in the Accountancy Profession (September 2024)