Longevity and Urban America?

This map is somewhat challenging to decipher.  It shows the percentage of the population who are 85 years of age or older for each of the lower 48 state's 363 metro areas.  The purple areas have in some cases nearly double the senior populations of the orange metros.  These purple areas have 2-4% of their population consisting of Americans who have lived 5-10 years longer than the average life expectancy of about 75.  Some areas popular with retirees like Florida's metro, Prescott (AZ), Santa Barbara (CA), and Asheville (NC) show up as purple.  So do wealthier areas in Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut where health care may be more accessible.  There is also a fair sprinkling of old Rust Belt and upper Plains metros where there has been a large out-migration of younger workers.  So, while intriguing to ponder whether residents of some cities live longer than their peers in other cities, this map has too many possible variables to show a clear pattern.

Big Differences in Urban Americans' Ages

This intriguing map shows the median age in the United States' 366* metro areas.  Most metro areas have a median age somewhere in the 30s.  Eighteen metro areas, however, have populations whose median ages are under 30.  These include college towns like Ithaca (NY) and Athens (GA) as well as areas with large military bases such as Jacksonville (NC).  On the other end of the spectrum is the Punta Gorda metro area, a Florida retirement mecca where the median age is 55.8 years.  Another 71 metros -largely a mix of retirement/tourist areas and aging industrial towns- have median ages between 40-50 years.


*Some earlier maps show 366 metros but report there are only 365.  I miscounted.  There are 366.

The Typical American, More on Age

If you are 37, then you are the same age as the Typical American.  In fact, the mean age among Americans in 2012 was 37.4 and the median age was 37.4 too.  The median age has been creeping up as the large Baby Boomer cohort ages. In 2007 for instance the median age was 35.

In only one state is the median age under 30:  Utah.  In seven states the median age is now over 40:  Maine, West Virginia, , Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Florida.  West Virginia likely has an older population because of a large out-migration of younger people to other states for jobs.  Florida on the other hand reflects the opposite:  a large in-migration of retirees.  Only five years earlier in 2007, there were NO states where the median age was over 40.

What's Up with Booming North Dakota?

North Dakota is booming!  Yes, the same North Dakota of Fargo movie fame.  The same bitterly cold, flat, windy North Dakota we all know and...love?  North Dakota takes a lot of ribbing for its infamously cold winters, but now the state can also boast of having the lowest unemployment in the United States.  Why though are jobs so plentiful there?

North Dakota's situation involves two factors:  one a long-term demographic trend and the second the recent find of oil in the Bakken formation.

Like many rural areas, the Great Plains have been steadily losing people as many younger and working age people leave for jobs, potential mates, and other amenities in bigger cities.  The people who remain behind tend to mature into old age there.  Thus, this demographic phenomena is called aging in place.  Unlike popular retirement states such as Florida and Arizona, the Great Plains' seniors usually grew up and never left the rural communities that are their homes.  In much of rural North Dakota, unemployment is low in part because there are few working age North Dakotans to take jobs being vacated by retiring seniors.

The second factor that is making North Dakota boom and attract a sudden influx of working age people is the discovery and development of the Bakken oil field under western North Dakota.  In places like Williston, ND, jobs are plentiful and housing is hard to find.  Like earlier boomtowns, the discovery of oil has led to a sudden influx of workers and the infrastructure in these rural areas is trying to catch up to all the new residents.

The Typical American, Sex & Age