How do I count the number of dates in a column within a specific year range (i.e. 1980-1984)?

The end game is to produce a monthly graph of the demography of the ages of the members of the club I volunteer for. Once I can select the data I need, the rest I can do. I have around 400 members.
I have a spreadsheet containing the ages of the members which are in Date format (13/12/1999).
I believe the correct function to use is COUNTIFS().
If the date was just the year in number format I could use:-
=COUNTIFS($‘Member DB’.F2:$‘Member DB’.F400,">=1980",$‘Member DB’.F2:$‘Member DB’.F400,"<=1984")
What I can’t fathom out is how to manipulate the “Date” field to allow me to select the various date(year) ranges that I need.
Any help will be gratefully received.
Phaz

">="&DATE(1980; 1; 1); "<"&DATE(1985; 1; 1)

Thanks Mike.