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How do they express in Russian a range of age of a given group of people?

As far as I know, "to range" is rendered as "колебаться" in statistics, that is, in dealing with big sets of elements that are still subject to change. For example, "Возраст водителей-дальнобольщиков в России колеблется от 25 до 45 лет".

However, what about a case of a small group of people, say 11, that is not subject to any change (that is, no new members will be added and not one member will be out). For example, "The victims of yesterday's shooting ranged in age from 11 to 63". If the number of victims is 11 and all victims are identified (that is, each victim's age is precisely known) then it seems to be wrong to use "колеблется" in this case:

"Возраст одиннадцати убитых колеблется от 11 до 63"

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    Here: убитым было от 11 до 63 лет
    – Roman Odaisky
    Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 0:04
  • It doesn't have to be subject to temporal change, the change could be spatial (возраст водителей колеблется в зависимости от региона), or the change per sample (take one victim, check the age, take another, check the age, etc. - get a different value of age each time, therefore it колеблется).
    – Headcrab
    Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 3:43
  • @Headcrab - So, are you saying that it's okay to say "Возраст одиннадцати убитых колеблется от 11 до 63"?
    – brilliant
    Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 5:11
  • @brilliant Well, at least it doesn't sound immediately wrong.
    – Headcrab
    Commented Aug 7, 2018 at 5:48

2 Answers 2

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The choice depends on how formal it should sound. The versions below begin with the least formal one (fresh news, etc.).

Убитым во вчерашней перестрелке было от 11 до 63 лет.

Во вчерашней перестрелке погибли люди в возрасте от 11 до 63 лет.

Убитые во вчерашней перестрелке были в возрасте от 11 до 63 лет.

Убитые во вчерашней перестрелке по возрасту были от 11 до 63 лет.

Police report style:

Установленный возраст убитых во вчерашней перестрелке находится в диапазоне (or составил) от 11 до 63 лет.

Pure statistics:

Убитые во вчерашней перестрелке принадлежат обширной возрастной группе - от 11 до 63 лет.

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Describing a quantified value, you could say "колеблется/изменяется [в пределах]" -- "oscillates/changes [in certain range]", "находится в пределах от ... до ..." -- "[its value] is in range".

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