The boy wizard certainly packed a lot of living into his teenage years, but how old is Harry Potter in 2021? Poor Harry Potter had quite the rough start in life. Just a few months after celebrating his first birthday, Harry was left orphaned when his parents Lily and James were brutally killed by Lord Voldemort. After that traumatic experience, young Harry was sent to live with his neglectful aunt and uncle Petunia and Vernon Dursley and their spoiled son Dudley, where he was treated like a servant and forced to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs.
Everything changed on Harry Potter’s 11th birthday, of course, when gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid rocked up with his famously misspelled cake and proclaimed “Yer a wizard, Harry,” before handing him his letter of acceptance to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Soon after, the Hogwarts Express whisked Harry and his new pal Ron Weasley away to start their first year at the school where their adventures in the world of wizardry began.
The Harry Potter books and movies followed Harry, Ron and fellow Golden Trio member Hermione Granger through their late tweens and teenage years up until what would have been their final year at Hogwarts had defeating Voldemort not taken precedence – which Harry did at the tender age of 17. The Deathly Hallows epilogue caught up with Harry, Ron and Hermione almost two decades later when the Golden Trio were in their late thirties and watching their own children depart for Hogwarts, but how old would Harry Potter be now in 2021?
Any Potterhead worth their wand will know Harry Potter’s birthday is July 31 and that he was born in 1980. That means that The Boy Who Lived is now a 40-year-old man who is set to celebrate his 41st birthday in the summer of 2021. Interestingly, Harry is the youngest of the Golden Trio as Ron was born on March 1, 1980, while Hermione was born on September 19, 1979. However, he’s practically the same age as Neville Longbottom is now as he was born the day before Harry on July 30, 1980, and was a potential candidate to fulfill the prophecy of the Chosen One (in the Harry Potter books at least).
Harry Potter’s birthday also has wider significance both in the fictional and real world. Not only is July 31 the cut-off date for would-be wizards to accept their offer into Hogwarts, but it’s also the day on which Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling was born back in 1965.