JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The older population of people 65 and older in the United States is steadily increasing, while the number of children is declining, according to the Vintage 2024 Population Estimates released on Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to the new data, from 2020 to 2024, people aged 65 and older grew by 13.0%, significantly outpacing the 1.4% growth of working-age adults (ages 18 to 64), while the number of children declined by 1.7%.
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From 2023 to 2024, the U.S. older population rose by 3.1% — to 61.2 million — while the children’s population decreased by 0.2%, to 73.1 million.
“Children still outnumber older adults in the United States, despite a decline in births this decade,” said Lauren Bowers, chief of the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Branch. “However, the gap is narrowing as baby boomers continue to age into their retirement years. In fact, the number of states and counties where older adults outnumber children is on the rise, especially in sparsely populated areas.”
In 2020, there were just three states where older adults outnumbered children: Maine, Vermont and Florida. In 2024, the number increased to 11 with Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia joining the list.
In addition, in 2020, 983 of the country’s 3,144 counties had more older adults than children. This number increased to 1,411 counties in 2024, which is nearly half of the country’s counties.
In both years, most of these counties had small populations and were located outside of metro and micro areas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In Duval County, children 18 and under still outnumber adults 65 and older.
In 2024, the U.S. median age reached a new record high of 39.1, up 0.1 years from 2023, and up 0.6 years from 38.5 in 2020.
Maine’s population in 2024 was the oldest, with a median age of 44.8. Utah’s was the youngest, with a median age of 32.4.
The data estimates also found women outnumbered men by 3.4 million, making up 50.5% of the U.S. population in 2024.