Depending on the parameters specified, this template displays a person's birth or death year, or full birth or death date, with or without the person's age. It therefore combines the functionality of the following templates:

• {{Birth-date}}
• {{Birth date}}
• {{Birth date and age}} – same as {{Birth date}}, except that "(age ##)" appears after the birth date
• {{Birth year and age}} – year of birth and approximate age
• {{Death-date}}
• {{Death date}}
• {{Death date and age}} – same as {{Death date}}, except that "(aged ##)" appears after the death date
• {{Death year and age}} – year of death and approximate age at death

Using this template rather than simply inserting the date into articles allows for the inclusion of hidden metadata about the date. This metadata can be used by web browsers and other software tools to extract the details, and display them using some other website or mapping tool, index or search them.

The minimum information required by the template is a birth or death year.

{{BirthDeathAge | [insert "B" for a birth date, or leave blank for a death date] |
[year of birth] | [month of birth] | [day of birth] | [year of death] |
[month of death] | [day of death]}}

Any missing information can simply be left out of the template: see the examples below.

For readability, spaces have been inserted between pipe symbols ("|") where information has not been inserted into the template. When using the template, these spaces can be omitted. Using {{^}} can help space the template

{{BirthDeathAge|{{^}}|1976|{{^}}|{{^}}|2007|1|2}}

January 2, 2007 (aged 30–31)

An optional parameter, date format, can be set to "yes" to display the day before the month. This is primarily used in articles about people from parts of the world where the day precedes the month in a date.

{{BirthDeathAge|B|1976|1|2|{{^}}|{{^}}|{{^}}}}

(1976-01-02) January 2, 1976 (age 48)

{{BirthDeathAge|B|1976|1|2|{{^}}|{{^}}|{{^}}|yes}}

(1976-01-02) 2 January 1976 (age 48)

{{BirthDeathAge|B|1976}}

1976 (age 47–48)

{{BirthDeathAge|B|1976|6|7|1990|8|9}}

(1976-06-07)June 7, 1976

{{BirthDeathAge|B|1976|6|7}}

(1976-06-07) June 7, 1976 (age 48)

{{BirthDeathAge|B|1976|||1990}}

1976 (1976)

{{BirthDeathAge| |1976| | |1990| |}}

1990 (aged 13–14)

{{BirthDeathAge| | | | |1990| |}}

1990 (1991)

{{BirthDeathAge| | | | |1990|8|9}}

(1990-08-09)August 9, 1990

{{BirthDeathAge| |1976| | |1990|8|9}}

August 9, 1990 (aged 13–14)

• Wikipedia:Age calculation templates