We review the ages of starbursts and the methods used to obtain this information. We emphasize that the measurement of this parameter is non-trivial because of observational biases and the complex time-dependent behavior of a starburst. Star clusters probably provide the best estimates of starburst ages which are then in the range 10–100 Myr, although the short lifetimes of some clusters must introduce a bias against longer lived events. From studies of stellar populations in nearby dwarf galaxies, the burst frequency is found to be ~ 15%. Stellar population synthesis modeling of unresolved galaxies provides starburst ages of a few Myr up to 100 Myr, consistent with ages derived using star clusters. Overall, the likely duration of a starburst event of 100 Myr suggests that they evolve on a time scale which is consistent with the internal dynamical time scale of a galaxy.
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