According to a new release from the 2020 Census, demographic change has accelerated in the United States in the last 10 years. Especially the group of people over 65 has grown the fastest, the data shows.
Whereas in 2010, 12.8% of Americans were 65 or older, this had risen 4 percentage points to 16.8% in 2020. In previous decades, the relative size of the age group had remained more stable. At the same time, the proportion of Americans under the age of 25 fell more than usual, declining by 2.8 percentage points to 31.5% of the population. Previously, changes in cohort size had stayed below 1 percentage point per decade.
This graph shows the proportion of selected age groups in the total US population (1990-2020).
Major changes in age groups are unprecedented in the US, as the 1990 census figures show (compared to the 1980 census). Between the two installments of the count, the last large cohorts of the Baby Boomer generation, born around 1960, aged out of the under-25 demographic, resulting in a significant drop in youth in the country. At the same time, the number of people aged 65 and over increased. This was because the largest pre-war age groups born before 1925 had reached retirement age in 1990.
These changes between 1980 and 1990 already showed the power of the powerful generation of Baby Boomers. Their rise to full adulthood decreased the number of young people by more than 5 percentage points in just 10 years, while the aging of the prewar generation only increased the number of people aged 65 and over by just 1.3 percentage points compared to the previous generation. same period of time.
Baby boomers remain the largest demographic force
Now that a good portion of the Baby Boomer cohorts have passed the age of 65, they are a major influence on the aging of the US population. Experts have warned that the country is not ready for these changes that are underway. However, in an international comparison, the United States is only at the beginning of its journey toward demographic change. The world’s most prominent aging society, Japan already had a 28.5% share of residents aged 65 and over in 2020, while Italy, Greece, Germany and Finland they were looking for more than 22% each for this metric.
Thanks to immigration, the United States has been able to delay the aging of societybut it is happening nonetheless. Immigrants are already contributing about half of the US population growth. as births have continued to decline. Two states among those with the highest proportion of immigrants in the US were also among the youngest: in Texas and California, the median age of the population stood at 35.1 years and 37.1 years, respectively. , below the new national average of 38.8 years also published by the Census. Office last week.
—
traced by Statesman