The median age rose in virtually each state final 12 months, census estimates present, persevering with a long-term pattern that’s pushing states to arrange for ageing populations.
Seventeen states had median ages over 40 in 2022, in keeping with new U.S. Census Bureau estimates of the age at which half of residents are older and half are youthful. That’s up from 12 states in 2020 and simply seven in 2010.
Nationwide, the median age was under 30 till 1980, however it rose to 38.9 as of 2022, in keeping with the bureau estimates.
That leaves extra states planning for future well being and housing challenges for older residents. Some states have issued or are contemplating government orders, company plans and laws to help state residents who want extra assist with well being crises, housing and long-term care as they dwell longer.
Millennials began turning 40 final 12 months, and the youngest child boomers are shortly approaching 60.
“Because the nation’s median age creeps nearer to 40, you may actually see how the ageing of child boomers, and now their kids — generally referred to as echo boomers — is impacting the median age,” mentioned Kristie Wilder, a Census Bureau demographer, in a press release.
Decrease delivery charges additionally play a job and can probably proceed to drive median age slowly however steadily greater, Wilder added. Some states have handed laws requiring that well being insurers cowl fertility therapies in response to decrease fertility charges, in keeping with a College of California, Irvine examine revealed final 12 months. New York state’s 2020 regulation, for instance, requires protection of in vitro fertilization in some instances.
No states noticed a drop from 2021 to 2022, and states with unchanged medians have been Alabama, Maine, Tennessee and West Virginia, together with the District of Columbia. The biggest enhance in median age lately was in Delaware, the place it rose three years since 2010 to age 41.8.
The portion of Delaware residents over 60 will bounce from 1 / 4 to greater than a 3rd of the state inhabitants by 2040, in keeping with a 2020 state report, creating new challenges for state providers. A Delaware Journal of Public Well being report revealed in 2021 mentioned a rising variety of Delaware’s older residents undergo from dementia, requiring dearer assist from the state and household caregivers.
Vermont held six public listening periods across the state final 12 months to assist put together suggestions this 12 months for Age Sturdy Vermont, its street map for an “age-friendly state.”
“Vermont had this older demographic for a very long time however it’s taken some time for the state broadly to actually reckon with that,” mentioned Angela Smith-Dieng, Vermont’s Grownup Companies Division director. A part of the problem is that older Vermont residents are likely to dwell in massive rural homes and need assistance with in-home well being care, renovations for mobility and transportation on demand, she mentioned.
A New York government order in November additionally requires a statewide plan on ageing.
Vermont and New York joined different states already planning complete methods for ageing populations: California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Texas, in keeping with a January report by the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.
California’s Grasp Plan for Growing older, launched in 2021, goals to create an “age-friendly California” by 2030, together with housing and well being care methods. A invoice at present progressing within the state legislature would create a statewide system of respite suppliers by 2025 to assist in giving major caregivers of older adults enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income residents, a break.
Elsewhere, an Oregon invoice to review long-term care wants for older residents has handed each chambers of the legislature.
Solely North Dakota is youthful now than it was in 2010, down 1.2 years from age 37 to 35.8. The state’s burgeoning oil business has drawn youthful employees to jobs that pay nicely and don’t require four-year faculty levels.
Vitality counties in different states have seen comparable influxes of younger folks. Loving County, Texas, for instance, noticed its median age lower from 52.7 in 2010 to 35.3 in 2022, a distinction of greater than 17 years.
Skeet Lee Jones, county decide there, mentioned the tiny county has work camps for greater than 1,000 oil employees and tons of extra younger employees dwelling in leisure car camps, with good-paying jobs that create their very own challenges for county authorities.
“We’ve needed to begin paying our personal county employees what we name ‘oil-field wages’ simply to get issues carried out, about 4 or 5 instances minimal wage,” Jones mentioned.
The oldest state within the nation stays Maine at 44.8. It additionally was the oldest in 2010, at 42.7.
Different states with median ages at 40 or above in 2022: New Hampshire (43.3), Vermont (43.2), West Virginia (42.8), Florida (42.7), Delaware (41.8), Pennsylvania and Connecticut (40.9), Hawaii (40.7), Rhode Island (40.6), Wisconsin (40.4), New Jersey, Oregon and South Carolina (all 40.3), Montana and Michigan (40.2), and Massachusetts (40.1).
The youngest states and the one ones with median ages under 37 have been Utah (31.9), the District of Columbia (34.8), Texas (35.5), and Alaska and North Dakota (35.8)
On the county degree, the median age in 2022 was as little as 20.9 in Madison County, Idaho, residence of Brigham Younger College-Idaho, the place many younger college students are additionally beginning households.
The median age was as excessive as 68.1 in Sumter County, Florida, a part of the sprawling The Villages retirement neighborhood. In 2010 Sumter County’s median age was 62.7, the one county with a median age of 60 or greater within the nation on the time.
In 2022 there have been six others: Catron County, New Mexico (62.1); Jeff Davis County, Texas (61.7); Harding County, New Mexico (60.5); Jefferson County, Washington (60.4); Charlotte County, Florida (60.2); and Highland County, Virginia (60.0).
This story was initially revealed by Stateline, which just like the Alaska Beacon, is a part of States Newsroom, a community of reports bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott Greenberger for questions: [email protected]. Comply with Stateline on Fb and Twitter.