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Baby Boomer Insights from the US Census Bureau.
At an estimated 73 million, this generation is the second-largest age group after their children, the millennials, born from 1982 to 2000.
“As boomers age through their 60s, 70s, 80s, and increasingly beyond, the ‘big bulge’ of the boomer generation will contribute to the overall aging of the U.S. population in coming decades,” said Stella Ogunwole, a demographic statistician with the Census Bureau.
“The older population is becoming even more significant,” she said.
The number of people age 65 and older in the United States has grown rapidly over most of the 20th century, from 3.1 million in 1900 to 35 million in 2000.
In 2018, there were 52 million people age 65 and older, according to the Census Bureau’s Vintage Population Estimates. Their share of the population grew as well, from 12.4% in 2000 to 16.0% in 2018.
But aging boomers are not the only reason the nation’s population is getting older overall. Longer lives — in part due to better health care — and record low birth rates among young women are also major factors, according to Haaga.
The total fertility rate of U.S. women is now 1.7 children per woman, below the 2.1 children needed to replace the population.
Life expectancy at age 65 went from 11.9 years (1900-1902) to 19.1 years in 2010, according to An Aging World, a Census Bureau report co-authored by Wan He.
Older adults are projected to outnumber children under age 18 for the first time in U.S. history by 2034, according to Census Bureau projections.
“The mismatch between old and young will have implications across the coming years,” said Dr. Grace Whiting, president and CEO of the National Alliance of Caregivers.
“We aren’t having enough children to take care of us in our old age,” she said. “Look at my family: my in-law was one of six children, my husband and I were one of two, and we don’t have kids. Extrapolate that out, and that’s what’s happening nationwide.”
Whiting’s concern points to the increasing need for caregiver and health services for people over age 65, many of whom use services whose funding depends on decisions made based on census data.
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