What is the approximate age of the Earth?

The approximate age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years.

Scientists determine this age mainly through radiometric dating, especially uranium–lead and lead–lead measurements in meteorites. Meteorites preserve material left over from the early Solar System, so their isotopic clocks provide a reliable estimate for when Earth and the other planets formed.

The figure is not a date to the exact year. The accepted estimate is about 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years, reflecting uncertainty in measurement and in the timing of Earth’s final accretion and differentiation. The oldest known terrestrial zircons are about 4.4 billion years old, but they formed after Earth itself began assembling.

A common mix-up is confusing Earth’s age with the age of the Solar System’s oldest solids, which formed slightly earlier, around 4.567 billion years ago. Earth’s oldest rocks are also younger than the planet because early crust was destroyed or recycled by impacts, melting, weathering, and plate tectonics.