The global aging of the population actualizes the problem of public perception of old age, since the emerging stereotypes affect the health, social activity and life expectancy of older people, can provoke their social exclusion and self-discrimination. Questions remain insufficiently studied about how socio-demographic characteristics are related to the structure of ideas about old age, what semantic complexes form these ideas and what factors form a positive or negative image of old age, which amounted to the content of this study. The empirical basis was the data of a representative survey of the population of the Vologda oblast (N = 1500, 2025). Three blocks of questions were used: an open question about associations with the word “old age” (followed by grouping answers into nine semantic categories), a closed block of 16 judgments about old age and the elderly (5-point consent scale), a closed question about the components of “prosperous old age”. The analysis was carried out by socio-demographic groups (gender, age, marital status, education, income, type of settlement, life satisfaction, psychological state) using descriptive statistics and conjugacy analysis methods. The ambivalence of the perception of old age was revealed: the topic of physical ill-health prevails in open associations (53%), however, in the answers to closed questions, a respectful attitude towards the elderly is highlighted. It has been established that negative ideas form stable semantic connectives (diseases – loneliness – poverty), as well as positive ideas are intertwined with each other (family – rest – wisdom). Risk factors (old age, low level of education and income, symptoms of anxiety and/or depression, absence of a spouse and children, feeling of loneliness) and protective factors (marriage, having children, higher education, life satisfaction, material wealth) of the formation of a negative image of old age. It was shown that the components that make up a prosperous old age are primarily health, financial security, access to medicine, family relations, comfortable and safe housing; socio-demographic differences in the selection of these components were highlighted. The results obtained demonstrate that the perception of old age is structured and not reducible to simple categories “negative”, “neutral”, “positive”. The identified semantic blocks of associations and their relationship with socio-demographic characteristics can become the basis for the development of personalized preventive measures and measures to form a positive public discourse about old age.