Date question · Text

Date of birth and date questions

Ask for a date of birth and get each respondent’s age, worked out when they answer, with age bands in Results and the age in its own export column. Or ask for any other date, inside the earliest and latest dates you set.

Available onFree & up· every plan

The date of birth question as respondents see it: a date field with a birth date entered, on a laptop and on a phone

Live demo

Give a date. Your answer joins the results.

This is the question your respondents get. Type or pick a date, press Next, and watch the results beside it count you, and the row your answer becomes in the export.

What is your date of birth?

In action

Date of birth in action

0:00The date of birth question, with the browser’s own date field.
0:03A respondent enters their birth date.
0:06Results: a bar for each age band, and the respondent’s band grows.
0:09The same question at a phone’s width.

Every feature

Everything date questions can do

A date of birth with the age worked out, any other date inside the window you set, and age bands, age rules and an age column.

Build it your waySet-up in the builder.

LiveFree

Date of Birth, set up for you

By default, Date of Birth starts with Calculate age on, the six default age bands, and a window of 120 years ending on the day you add the question.

Every setting it starts with is yours to change.

LiveFree

Earliest and latest date

Set an Earliest Date and a Latest Date. Next checks the date, and the server checks it again.

A date outside the window gets the standard “Please answer this question to continue.” message, so say the range in your question.

LiveFree

Age, worked out for you

With Calculate age on, the server works out each person’s age in whole years when they answer, saves it with the answer, and exports it as Q1_AGE.

It’s their age on the day they answered by the UTC date, and it doesn’t change later.

LiveFree

Your own age bands

18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+ by default. Edit a band’s label and ages, add a band, or reset to the defaults.

Keep the bands in order with no gaps or overlaps: the editor flags a list that isn’t.

LiveFree

Don’t know and Prefer not to answer

Turn on Non-answer options for Don’t know and Prefer not to answer, or write your own. Choosing one clears the date, and an opt-out gets no age.

LiveFree

Required, soft required or optional

Required by default: Next needs a date, or an opt-out if you offer them. A soft-required question warns once before a skip. An optional one can be left blank.

Logic and follow-upsTie it to the rest of your survey.

LiveFree

Route or screen out by age

Each Date of Birth question adds its age in whole years to your logic, under a name such as Q1_AGE. Show, skip or end the survey on a rule such as under 18, or between 18 and 34.

Rules on the age need Calculate age on.

LiveFree

Age quotas

Quotas can use the age too, such as 18 to 34, or 55 and over.

LiveFree

Follow up on a date

Show a follow-up to people who gave a date, or who gave one exact date, and skip it for everyone else.

LiveFree

Before, after or between dates

Show a follow-up to people who gave a date before, after or between the dates you set, such as a visit after 13 July 2026.

LiveFree

Translated text

The question, its help text and the opt-out labels translate with your survey.

The date field follows the respondent’s browser language, not the survey’s, and age band labels aren’t translated.

On the respondent’s screenWhat people answering see and use.

LiveFree

The browser’s own date field

People type the date, or use the date picker their browser already has, on a laptop or a phone.

The order of day, month and year follows the browser’s language.

LiveFree

Opting out clears the date

While an opt-out is chosen, the date field is cleared, dimmed and can’t be used. Choose the opt-out again to clear it.

LiveFree

By keyboard

Tab to the date field and type the date. Tab to an opt-out and press Space to choose it.

LiveFree

Your theme, light or dark

The date field follows the survey’s theme and dark mode.

In your resultsResults, crosstabs (Solo+) and tab books (Research Team).

LiveFree

Age bands in Results

A Date of Birth question charts a bar for each age band, in band order, empty bands included, by the age people were when they answered.

Ages outside every band get an Other ages bar. Opt-outs count in the total without a bar.

LiveFree

Birth dates stay out of the charts

Results never lists a Date of Birth question’s exact dates. With Calculate age off, it groups them by birth decade.

LiveFree

A bar per date

A Date question charts how many people gave each date, with the most-given date at the top.

Dates aren’t grouped by week, month or year, so keep the window short.

LiveSolo+

Age bands in crosstabs

Use the age bands as a row or a banner in crosstabs (Solo+), with significance letters on Professional+.

Ages outside your bands are left out of crosstabs (Solo+). A band list the editor flags gets no bands there, and Results falls back to the default bands.

LiveResearch Team

A tab-book table

A Date of Birth question with age bands gets its own table in your tab book (Research Team).

Plain dates aren’t tabulated, and a band list the editor flags gets no table.

LiveFree

Filter to a segment

Filter Results to a group, and the age bands recount for it.

A date question can’t be a filter itself.

In your dataWhat lands in your exports.

LiveFree

The date as entered

Q1 holds the date in year-month-day form, such as 1996-10-19, labelled with your question.

In Excel the date is text, so convert it before using date filters or date sums.

LiveFree

An age column

Q1_AGE holds each person’s age in whole years, labelled with your question and “(age)”.

For an average age, use it in your CSV export, or in SPSS (Professional+).

LiveFree

Birth dates on request

Exports leave the birth date column out until you tick Include personal data. With Calculate age on, the age column is always there.

LiveProfessional+

A date variable in SPSS

A date, or a birth date once you include personal data, exports as an SPSS date variable (Professional+), and Q1_AGE as a scale variable.

With an opt-out code in the column, the date exports as text.

Not part of date questions yet: a choice of date format, separate day, month and year boxes, answers with just a month and year or just a year, times, limits relative to today such as “no future dates”, a minimum-age setting, an average age in Results, piping the date into later questions, and dates on dashboards or in report decks.

Choosing

Date of birth, or ask age another way?

A birth date gives you each person’s exact age. A number gives you an age people type. A list of age bands gives you a group people pick. Each suits a different survey.

Date of Birth · Free
Ask for a date of birth when
- You need exact ages: to screen out under-18s, set quotas by age, or export each person’s age.
- You want age bands in Results and in crosstabs (Solo+), without asking people to pick a band.
- The birth date itself matters to your study, such as an SPSS date variable (Professional+) when you include personal data and the column holds nothing but dates.
Open-ended, Number format · Free
Ask age as a number when
- You want the average and median age in Results.
- People may not want to give a birth date, but will give their age.
Single choice or Dropdown · Free
Offer age bands when
- A group is all you need, and picking one is quicker than entering a date.
- You want an age tile on your dashboard, or to weight your sample to age targets (Research Team).

Need a date that isn’t a birthday, such as the day someone visited? Use a Date question, and set the earliest and latest day it can be.

Build it

Add a date of birth or date question

1
Add the question
In the builder, choose Date of Birth (“Birthdate with an automatically calculated age”) from the Text group for a birth date, or Date (“Pick a date”) for any other date. Write the question, such as “What is your date of birth?”
2
Set the dates allowed
Set Earliest Date and Latest Date. By default, Date of Birth runs from 120 years before the day you add it to that day. For an event, use the days it opened and closed.
3
Choose the age and its bands
Keep Calculate age and save it as a separate column ticked for the age column, age rules and age bands. Edit the Age bands, or choose Reset to defaults. Settle these before the survey goes live.
4
Let people decline, if you want
Tick Non-answer options for Don’t know and Prefer not to answer, or write your own.
5
Use the age in your rules
In show, skip and quota rules, pick its age, such as Q1_AGE (“Age in years”), as the source, then is less than 18 to screen people out.
6
Decide whether it’s required, then preview
A date question is required by default. Soft required warns once before a skip; optional can be left blank. Preview on a phone and a laptop before you launch.

The Date of Birth editor: Earliest Date and Latest Date filled in, “Calculate age and save it as a separate column” ticked with its hint, and the six default age bands from 18-24 to 65+, each with its minimum and maximum — EditorThe window, the age and its bands in one place.

A display logic rule on a follow-up question: show it when the date of birth question’s age in years is less than 18 — LogicA rule on the age.

The date of birth question in the builder’s phone preview, with a birth date in the browser’s date field — Phone previewThe same question at a phone’s width.

The data you get

The date, and the age beside it

A date of birth question gives two columns: the birth date as entered, and the age in whole years. The birth date column stays out of exports until you tick Include personal data.

Include personal databirth dates, and email, name and phone

respondent_id	Q1_AGE
47762a85-0001-4000-8000-000000000001	30
47762a85-0002-4000-8000-000000000002	72
47762a85-0003-4000-8000-000000000003	54
47762a85-0004-4000-8000-000000000004	34
47762a85-0005-4000-8000-000000000005	47
47762a85-0006-4000-8000-000000000006	29
47762a85-0007-4000-8000-000000000007	20
47762a85-0008-4000-8000-000000000008	19

Trimmed to the question’s columns. With Include personal data unticked, the birth date column is left out and the age stays. Every export also carries the respondent columns (status, language, timing and more).

The date as entered

Q1 holds the date in year-month-day form, such as 1996-10-19, labelled with your question. In Excel the date is text, so convert it before using date filters or date sums.

The age in whole years

Q1_AGE is labelled with your question and “(age)”, and comes with every export. For an average age, use it in your CSV export, or in SPSS (Professional+).

Birth dates on request

The birth date column is left out until you tick Include personal data. A Date question’s column, such as Q1 for the festival day, is always included.

Opt-outs

An opt-out writes its code, such as PNTA, in the date column and leaves the age blank. In SPSS (Professional+), a date column with an opt-out code in it exports as text.

Charts & analysis

Age bands, not a list of birth dates

Results charts a date of birth question by age band, or by birth decade with Calculate age off, and crosstabs use the bands as a row or a banner (Solo+). A date question gets a bar for each date people gave.

The Surveti Results bars for “What is your date of birth?”: a bar for each age band in order, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65+, showing how many people are in each age band and the share — Bars follow your bands, from youngest to oldest, with each band’s share.

Where it charts

ResultsAge bands; a bar per date
CrosstabsAge bands as a banner · Solo+
Tab booksDate of birth with bands · Research Team
ExportsDates and the age; birth dates on request
DashboardNot yet
Report deckNot yet

Analysis that applies

Crosstab by age band
Solo+
Use the age bands as a row or a banner, and see how each band answered everything else. Ages outside your bands are left out of crosstabs (Solo+). A band list the editor flags gets no bands there, and Results falls back to the default bands.
Significance letters
Professional+
On Professional+, column letters mark where an age band differs significantly from another, as they do for any banner.
Tab books
Research Team
A date of birth question with age bands gets its own table in your tab book (Research Team). Plain dates aren’t tabulated, and a band list the editor flags gets no table.
Filter to a segment
Free
Filter Results to a group, such as people who answered a screener a certain way, and the age bands recount for that group. A date question can’t be a filter itself.

How Surveti compares

Date questions across the common survey tools

Date of birth capabilities in Surveti, SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, Typeform and Alchemer, as of 9 November 2026
Capability	Surveti	SurveyMonkey	Qualtrics	Typeform	Alchemer
A date question type	yesDate, and the Date of Birth preset	yes¹Date / Time	yes^{3, 4}Calendar (a permission); Text Entry with date validation	yes⁸	yes¹¹
A calendar picker	yesThe browser’s own	unclear¹Text boxes; no picker described	yes³Calendar	unclear^{8, 9}	yes¹¹
Author chooses the date format	noFollows the browser	yes¹Two formats	partial^{3, 4}Base language (Calendar); a format list (Text Entry)	yes⁸Three orders and a separator	yes¹¹Three formats
Dates without a day or a year	no	partial¹Date/Month, Month/Year (search summary)	unclear³	unclear⁸	unclear¹¹
Time as well as date	no	yes¹	yes³	unclear⁸	unclear¹¹
Earliest and latest date	yesChecked on the server too	partial¹Single Textbox workaround; years from 1900	yes³Restrict ranges (Calendar)	no⁸No date bounds in the API	yes¹¹
Limits relative to today	noFixed dates	unclear¹	unclear³	unclear⁸	yes¹¹“today”, “-1 week”
Minimum-age check on a birth date	partialA rule on the age, such as under 18	unclear¹	partial⁶Custom JavaScript (community)	unclear	partial¹²Age script, then logic
Age worked out from the birth date	yesWhole years, when they answer	unclear¹	partial⁶Custom JavaScript (community)	unclear	partial¹²JavaScript action; not on mobile
Age groups in reporting	yesResults; crosstabs on Solo+	unclear	unclear	unclear	unclear
A chart of date answers	partialA bar per exact date	no¹“Charts are not generated”	partial³Date field in Results and Reports	unclear	partial¹¹A collapsed response list
Export layout documented	yesDates and the age; birth dates on request	unclear¹	unclear³	unclear	yes¹¹One column
Logic on a date	yesBefore, after, between, or an exact date	unclear¹	unclear³	unclear¹⁰Community threads ask	unclear¹¹
Required	yesOr soft required	yes¹	yes³Force or request	yes⁸	unclear¹¹
Format follows the survey language	noFollows the browser	unclear¹	yes³Base language (Calendar)	unclear	unclear¹¹
On the free or entry plan	yesFree	unclear¹	partial³Calendar needs a user permission	unclear	unclear¹¹

As of 9 Nov 2026, from each vendor’s public help, developer and community pages.yespartialpaidunclearno

Partial means partly built in, or possible through a documented workaround; unclear means the vendor’s public docs don’t settle it. Also documented elsewhere: QuestionPro’s month-and-year and year formats, SurveySparrow’s dates relative to the day someone answers, Jotform’s Age Verification on its Date Picker, and Google Forms’ optional year and time.

Sources (9)

[1] SurveyMonkey: Date / Time question. https://help.surveymonkey.com/en/surveymonkey/create/date-time-question/ · accessed 9 Nov 2026
[3] Qualtrics: Calendar question. https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/editing-questions/question-types-guide/standard-content/calendar-question/ · accessed 9 Nov 2026
[4] Qualtrics: Validation. https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/editing-questions/validation/ · accessed 9 Nov 2026
[6] Qualtrics Community: compute age from a date of birth (community thread, search summary). https://community.qualtrics.com/custom-code-12/ask-date-of-birth-then-compute-for-age-to-screen-respondents-based-on-age-23952 · accessed 9 Nov 2026
[8] Typeform: Create API reference. https://www.typeform.com/developers/create/reference/create-form/ · accessed 9 Nov 2026
[9] Typeform: Date question (search summary). https://help.typeform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052869051 · accessed 9 Nov 2026
[10] Typeform Community: birthdate field (community thread, search summary). https://community.typeform.com/questions/163 · accessed 9 Nov 2026
[11] Alchemer: Date question. https://help.alchemer.com/help/date · accessed 9 Nov 2026
[12] Alchemer: Calculate age from birthday. https://help.alchemer.com/help/calculate-age-from-birthday · accessed 9 Nov 2026

What’s different here

Free on every plan

Date questions, Date of Birth included, with age rules, quotas, Results, and CSV and Excel exports, are on Free.

Age worked out for you

With Calculate age on, the server works out each person’s age in whole years when they answer, and keeps it in its own column.

Age bands, not birth dates

Results charts a date of birth question by age band, or by birth decade with Calculate age off, so no one’s birth date is listed in a chart.

Screen and set quotas by age

Use the age in show, skip and end rules, and in quotas.

Birth dates left out of exports until you ask

The birth date column stays out of exports until Include personal data is ticked. With Calculate age on, the age column is always there.

A date variable in SPSS

Dates export to SPSS (Professional+) as date variables when the column holds nothing but dates, birth dates once you include personal data, and the age as a scale variable.

When to use it

Use it when you need the age, or the date itself

When to use it

Screeners that need an exact age: under-18s out, and quotas by age.
Age bands you set yourself, in Results and in crosstabs (Solo+).
Studies that analyse age as a number: the age column is always in your exports.
A date that matters in itself: a visit, a purchase or a start date, inside the dates you allow.

When to reach for something else

A group is enough, and people may not want to give a birth date. Offer age bands with single choice or a dropdown.
You want the average age in Results. Ask age as a number with an open-ended question in Number format.
You need a time, just a month and year, or just a year. A date question always asks for a full date.
You want a chart of dates over time. Results gives each date its own bar.

Sample wording

“What is your date of birth?” · “Which day did you visit the food festival?”, Earliest Date 13 July 2026, Latest Date 19 July 2026

Best practices

Say why you need a birth date. If it isn’t essential, add Prefer not to answer.
Say the range in your question. A date outside it gets the standard “Please answer this question to continue.” message.
Match the age bands to the groups you report, in order, with no gaps or overlaps.
For an average age, use the age column in your CSV export, or in SPSS (Professional+).
For an event, set Earliest Date and Latest Date to the days it opened and closed, so the chart has one bar per day.
Set the window, the bands and Calculate age before the survey goes live: turning Calculate age off later removes the age column, and rules on the age stop matching.
Try it on a real phone: the date field there is the phone’s own.

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