SpongeBob SquarePants: How Old Is Patrick Star?

The characters in SpongeBob SquarePants never age, but how old is Patrick Star through the show? Here's what's known about his age.

As it happens in many other cartoons, the characters in SpongeBob SquarePants never really age, but how old is the title character’s best friend, Patrick Star? Created by Stephen Hillenburg, SpongeBob SquarePants made its debut on Nickelodeon in 1999 and has been unstoppable ever since, winning over the hearts of viewers of all ages and expanding to other media as well, most notably film and video games. SpongeBob SquarePants has also become one of the longest-running American animated shows as well as the most successful Nicktoon to date, surpassing fan-favorites Hey Arnold! and Rugrats.

SpongeBob SquarePants is all about the adventures of the title character in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom alongside his best friends and other characters close to him, as are his neighbor Squidward Tentacles and his greedy boss Mr. Krabs. One character who is often by SpongeBob’s side is Patrick Star, his best friend and neighbor who stands out from the rest as he’s not the most brilliant creature in the sea. SpongeBob and Patrick have gone through all types of adventures and problems together, and have even stopped being friends a couple of times, but they always make up and continue to be pretty much inseparable.

As mentioned above, in cartoon shows it’s very rare when characters actually age, as part of their appeal is that they stay the same over the years. In the case of the characters from SpongeBob SquarePants, the ages of some of them have been revealed in very subtle ways, but the show has made them tricky as they don’t really match with their current lives and the series has even tried to retcon them and make viewers forget they ever gave out a number. In Patrick’s case, his birthday hasn’t been revealed, but his age can be calculated through SpongeBob’s – or, at least, what was supposed to be SpongeBob’s age.

SpongeBob’s birthdate was revealed to be July 14, 1986, on two occasions, and if air dates and time setting in the series correlate, that would mean that SpongeBob was 13 years old when the series officially premiered. Now, at different points in the series, it has been mentioned that SpongeBob and Patrick have known each other since they were babies, so Patrick must have been born in the same year, meaning he was also 13 years old when the series began. Of course, this doesn’t make sense when taking their lifestyles into account: they both live alone, SpongeBob has a job (Patrick rarely does), and they have their own houses. SpongeBob’s birthdate has since been removed from his license and other documents, and Patrick’s has never been shown on any documents that would normally include his birthdate, so his and SpongeBob’s ages are left to the imagination.

Some fansites list Patrick’s birthdate as July 19, 1984, which doesn’t really fit either as that would mean he was 15 at the beginning of SpongeBob SquarePants – unless, as is the case with other animals, their ages are translated differently in human years. What’s for sure is that SpongeBob and Patrick have either the same age or there’s a minor difference between them, which isn’t a problem at all as they get along too well, much to the annoyance of their other neighbor, Squidward Tentacles.

Next: SpongeBob SquarePants: Is Patrick Secretly A Genius? Fan Theory Explained