{"id":20150,"date":"2015-07-09T11:59:34","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T16:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/where-do-the-oldest-americans-live\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:46:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:46:13","slug":"where-do-the-oldest-americans-live","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/07\/09\/where-do-the-oldest-americans-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Where do the oldest Americans live?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Counties<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

As the oldest Baby Boomers reach retirement age<\/a> and older generations live longer, more counties across America are graying. A new Pew Research Center analysis of the Census Bureau\u2019s 2014 population estimates<\/a> finds that 97% of counties saw an increase in their 65-and-older population since 2010.<\/p>\n\n

On average, a U.S. county\u2019s 65-and-older population grew by 12.4% from 2010 to 2014. (Our analysis of population change over time included only counties or county equivalents with a population of 1,000 or more adults ages 65 and older in 2014.)<\/p>\n\n

And some counties are \u201caging\u201d much more rapidly than others. Several counties in Colorado are among them. Douglas County, Colo., just south of Denver, led the nation with a 53.7% increase in the 65-and-older group from 2010 to 2014. Two other Colorado counties, Routt, on the Wyoming border, and Elbert, southeast of Denver, rounded out the top three, with growth rates above 50%.<\/p>\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

By many measures, Florida \u2013 which has long attracted snowbirds and retirees \u2013 is one of the nation\u2019s grayest states. Overall, 19.1% of the Sunshine State\u2019s population is 65 and older, the highest percentage in the nation. Sumter County, west of Orlando, is the only U.S. county where more than half (52.9%) of residents are 65 and older. Sumter County also has the highest median age in America: At 65.9, it beats the county or county equivalent with the lowest median age (Lexington city, Va.) by nearly 44 years.<\/p>\n\n

Ranking second in percentage of people who are 65 and older is Charlotte County, Fla., with 37.7%, followed by La Paz County in Arizona (36.1%) and Citrus County in Florida (35.2%). In Florida, 53 of 67 counties have an above-average share of people 65 and older when compared with the percentage of Americans in that demographic (14.5%, or 46.2 million).<\/p>\n\n

Not all U.S. counties are aging \u2013 in fact, a tiny share of counties (3%) saw a drop in the 65-and-older demographic since 2010. Oklahoma\u2019s small Alfalfa County, on the Kansas border, had the highest rate of decrease<\/em> in the 65-and-older population, at 9.5%.<\/p>\n\n

North Dakota \u2013 a state that we\u2019ve noted for the recent surge in its male population<\/a> \u2013 had two counties, Williams and Wells, rank among the top five for rate of decrease<\/em> of adults 65 and older. Three counties experienced no change since 2010.<\/p>\n\n

Alaska is the \u201cyoungest\u201d state based on its share that is 65 and older (9.4%). Fully 26 of 29 Alaska counties have percentages of people 65 and older that fall below the U.S. average.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the oldest Baby Boomers reach retirement age and older generations live longer, more counties across America are graying. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":351,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[29,204,207],"bylines":[813],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[519],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-20150","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-generations-age","category-comparison-of-generations","category-older-adults-aging","bylines-lauren-kent","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":388,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/07\/09\/where-do-the-oldest-americans-live\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":30239,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":30239,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":30239,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":30239,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":30239,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png?w=640&h=405&crop=1","width":640,"height":405,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":30239,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/07\/FT_15.07.06_65plus_map.png?w=640&h=550&crop=1","width":640,"height":550,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Where do the oldest Americans live?","description":"As the oldest Baby Boomers reach retirement age and older generations live longer, more counties across America are graying.","og_title":"Where do the oldest Americans live?","og_description":"As the oldest Baby Boomers reach retirement age and older generations live longer, more counties across America are graying. ","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":30239,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"a98999fb-203f-4c8a-a72b-8bcbeef7949b","termId":813}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/20150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/351"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/20150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109715,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/20150\/revisions\/109715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=20150"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=20150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}