The US population is older than ever before
What’s new
The median age in the United States reached an all-time high of 38.9 in 2022, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau.
It’s a rapid rise. In 2000, the median age was 35, and in In 1980 the median was 30.
Why it matters: The nation is aging and having fewer children.
While many 38-year-old millennials may still feel young, that age is an unusually high median for the country.
The new data adds to evidence that the United States, like many European and Asian countries, is aging and posing challenges to its workforce, economy and social programs.
Low birth rates are the main driver of the country’s rising median age, experts say.
“It’s simple arithmetic,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, president of demographic data company Social Explorer. “Fewer children are being born.”
The birth rate fell sharply in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. They have been ticked ever since. Yet since the start of the Great Recession in 2007, fertility has remained very low compared to previous generations.
The trend is international, even affecting countries with much stronger social programs than the United States, such as Norway, Sweden and Finland, which heavily subsidize childcare.
In industrialized countries, women of the millennial generation give higher priority to education and work in their 20s, leading them to marry older and have fewer children, according to researchers.
Among the states, Maine (44.8 median age) is the oldest, with New Hampshire (43.3) not far behind.
Utah (31.9), the District of Columbia (34.8) and Texas (35.5) are the youngest, according to the Census Bureau.
Of the counties with populations over 100,000, the oldest was Sumter County, Florida, where The Villages retirement community is partially located. The average age there was 68.1 years. The youngest major county was Utah County, home to the city of Provo, with a median age of 25.7.
Not coincidentally, Utah has some of the highest fertility rates in the nation.
Background: A nation of immigrants with low immigration rates.
The new census data covers the period up to July 2022.
And while it shows the U.S. population is older than ever, the country remains younger than its peers in Europe, where the median age is 44, said Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire.
Immigration has traditionally kept the United States young, as immigrants are generally working-age adults and often have more children than native Americans. While immigration has bounced back from record lows during the pandemic, overall it has delayed since 2016.
What’s Next: A More Diverse America.
As the country ages, it also becomes more diverse. Between 2021 and 2022, the country’s Asian population grew by 2.4 percent; the Spanish population at 1.7 percent; the black population at 0.9 percent; and the white population by 0.1 percent.
The Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander population increased by 1.8 percent and the American Indian population increased by 1.3 percent.
Southern and western states have attracted the most new residents in recent years, and those states are also some of the most dynamic demographically, according to the new census data.
Among the major counties, Kaufman County, Tex., a thriving suburb of Dallas, had the country’s fastest-growing black population, growing 21 percent — more than 6,000 residents — between 2021 and 2022.
The average age there last year was a relatively young 33.9 years.