WASHINGTON – The U.S. population is getting grayer.
The number of Americans 65 and older is increasing because of the combination of an aging “baby boom” generation and a declining death rate for older people, an analysis of government data indicates.
The nation’s population over the age of 65 more than doubled between 1980 and 2020; two-thirds of that growth occurred since 2000.
The largest contributor to the number of elderly Americans is the aging of the “baby boom” generation – the group of people born between 1946 and 1964. The first members of that cohort turned 65 in 2011.
The population aged 65 and older increased in every state since 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported recently. That increase amounted to 38.3% in Oklahoma, 80% in Texas, 38.4% in Arkansas, 34% in Kansas, 78.8% in New Mexico and 40.1% in Missouri.
Regionally, the share of each state’s population that was 65 or older in 2020 was:
• Oklahoma, 15.9%.
• Texas, 12.8%.
• Arkansas, 17.2%.
• Kansas, 16.3%.
• New Mexico, 18%.
• Missouri, 17.2%.
Nationwide, 55.65 million Americans were 65 or older in 2020, Census Bureau data showed.
The U.S. composition by race/ethnicity in 2020 was white, 59.7%; Hispanic, 18.6%; Black, 12.6%; Asian, 6.1%; and Native American or Alaska native, 0.7%.
The U.S. population on July 1, 2021, was estimated by the Census Bureau at 331.9 million.
In addition to the aging of baby boomers, older people in the U.S. are living longer. The death rate for people aged 65 or older declined 24% between 2000 and 2019 before increasing 15% in 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.
The death rate last year was 1,041 per 100,000 population, greater than in any year since 1943, when the United States was engaged in World War II.