# Presentation: 667396

## 65 Years 
and Over
Population: 2000

- 65 Years
- and Over
- Population: 2000

**Notes:**
35.0 Million people 65 years of age and over were counted in the United States in 2000, an increase of 12.0 percent since the 1990 census. 
Although the number of people 65 years and over increased between 1990 and 2000, their proportion of the total population dropped slightly.
This presentation presents a brief portrait of the 65 and over population of the United States.

SPEAKER NOTES: This presentation is based on the Census 2000 Brief, The 65 Years and Over Population: 2000, issued October 2001, and was developed by A. Emmy Warwick of the Census Bureau’s Marketing Services Office <amparo.e.warwick@census.gov>.

65YearsAndOver11/15/01

- The question on age has been asked since the first census of the population in 1790.

**Notes:**
The question on age has been asked since the first census of the population in 1790, and  data on the 65 years and over population was first published in 1870. 

## The Question on Age

**Notes:**
The Census 2000 age data were derived from a two-part question that was asked of all people. The first part asked for the age of the person, and the second part asked for the date of birth.

- The 65 years and over population grew slower than the total population.

**Notes:**
The 65 years and over population grew slower than the total population.

## The 65 Years and Over Population

**Notes:**
Census 2000 was the first time in the history of the census that the 65 years and over population did not grow faster than the total population. Between 1990 and 2000, the total population increased by 13.2 percent , from 248.7 million to 281.4 million people. In contrast, the population 65 years and over increased by only 12.0 percent. 

- Among the older population, those 85 years and over showed the highest percentage increase.

**Notes:**
The data from Census 2000 revealed that among the older population, those 85 years and over showed the highest percent increase.

**Notes:**
In 2000, there were 18.4 million people ages 65 to 74 years old, representing 53 percent of the older population.
 The 75-to-84-year-olds numbered 12.4 million people (35 percent of the older population), and those ages 85 and over numbered 4.2 million people (12 percent of the older population). These age groups represented 6.5 percent, 4.4 percent, and 1.5 percent of the total population.
During the 1990s, the most rapid growth of the older population occurred in the oldest age groups. The population 85 years and over increased by 38 percent, from 3.1 million to 4.2 million.
In contrast, the population 75 to 84 years old increased by 23 percent, and the population 65 to 74 years old increased by less than 2 percent, from 18.1 million to 18.4 million. 
Within the 65 to 74 age group, the number of people 65 to 69 years old declined by 6 percent, compared with an increase of 11 percent in the number of people 70 to 74 years old. The changes in the 65-to-74 age group reflect the relatively low number of births in the late 1920s and early 1930s, which in turn led to a relatively small number of people reaching age 65 during the decade of 1990 to 2000.
This trend is expected to reverse as baby boomers (born from 1946 through 1964) reach the age of 65, starting in 2011.

- Women outnumbered men in the 65 years and over population

**Notes:**
Women outnumbered men in the 65 years and over population.

## Slide 9

**Notes:**
In 2000, women outnumbered men in the 65 and over age group. There were 14.4 million men and 20.6 million women aged 65 and over, yielding a male-female ratio (the number who were male X100 divided by the number who were female) of 70. 
The male-female ratio drops steadily with age. 
In the 65-to-74 age group, the male-female ratio was 82; in the 75-to-84 age group, the male-female ratio was 65, and in the group 85 years and over, the ratio was 41. 
The male-female ratio for each age group in the older population has risen since 1990. In 1990, the ratios were 78, 60, and 39, respectively.

- The West and South regions had the most growth in the total population and in the older population.

**Notes:**
The West and South regions had the most growth in the total population and in the older population.

**Notes:**
The regional pattern of growth of the older population matched the regional growth of the total population. 
Between 1990 and 2000, the West and South regions grew the fastest. The West experienced the highest percent increase of the older population, at 20 percent, and the South’s older population grew by 16 percent. In contrast, the older population grew at a much lower rate in the Midwest (7 percent) and Northeast (5 percent).
Every state’s older population grew between 1990 and 2000, ranging from a 1-percent increase in Rhode Island to a 72-percent increase in Nevada. After Nevada, the next highest increases in the older population were found in Alaska (60 percent), Arizona (39 percent), and New Mexico (30 percent). Only the District of Columbia showed a decline in the 65-years -and-over population. Between 1990 and 2000, the older population in the District of Columbia decreased by 10 percent, or 8,000 people.

SPEAKER NOTES:
The West includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. 
The South includes Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The Midwest includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. 
The Northeast region includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Washington, DC, is treated as a state equivalent for statistical purposes.

- People 65 years and over represented a smaller proportion of the total population in 2000 than in 1990.

**Notes:**
People 65 years and over represented a smaller proportion of the total population in 2000 than in 1990. 
Unlike previous decades, during the 1990s, the proportion of the population composed of people 65 years and over declined nationally, in two regions of the country, and in over half of the states. 

**Notes:**
In the Midwest, the proportion 65 years and over declined from 13.0 percent of its total population in 1990 to 12.8 percent in 2000, and in the South the proportion declined from 12.6 percent to 12.4 percent. The Northeast remained the same at 13.8 percent, and in the West the proportion of people 65 years and over increased slightly from 10.9 percent in 1990 to 11.0 percent in 2000.
In over half of the states (29 including the District of Columbia) the proportion of 65 years and over of the total population declined. 
Nineteen of these states are in the Midwest and the South. The states with the largest declines in the proportion 65 years and over were Oregon, Arkansas, and Idaho, which each declined about 1 percentage point between 1990 and 2000 to proportions of 12.8 percent, 14.0 percent, and 11.3 percent. 
Florida continued to have the highest proportion of 65 years and over (17.6 percent), but experienced a similar decline in this proportion since 1990.

- The proportion 65 years and over in counties followed regional trends.

**Notes:**
The proportion 65 years and over in counties followed regional trends.

**Notes:**
This map shows the proportion 65 years and over of each of the country’s 3,141 counties and equivalent areas. The broad patterns evident on the map include a high proportion of people 65 years and over in counties extending through the Great Plains and south into central Texas. Many of these counties had a proportion of people 65 years and over that equaled or exceeded the proportion of the older population in the state of Florida (17.6 percent). The presence of this band in the Midwest suggests that the trends of outmigration of the young and aging-in-place have continued in this region. A similar band of counties with high proportions of older people is found in the Northeast region, stretching along Appalachia. 
By contrast, much of the West region consists of counties with lower proportions 65 years and over than the U.S. proportion of 12.4 percent, in part a result of higher net immigration and fertility.
The proportion 65 years and over of each country’s population ranged from a low of 2 percent in Chattahoochee County, Georgia, which has a large military presence, to a high of 35 percent in Charlotte County, Florida. The older population represented 20 percent or more of the total population in 381 counties of the United States, and 30 percent or more of the total population in 10 counties, half of which were in Florida.

- Clearwater and Cape Coral, Florida, along with Honolulu, Hawaii had the highest proportion 65 years and over of the places with 100,000 or more population.

**Notes:**
Let us take a look at the ten places of 100,000 or more population with the highest proportion 65 years and over. 
Clearwater and Cape Coral, Florida, along with Honolulu, Hawaii had the highest proportion 65 years and over. 

**Notes:**
Other places with populations over 100,000 that had the highest proportion of their total population 65 years and over were:  St. Petersburg, Hollywood, Miami and Hialeah, Florida; and Livonia, Michigan; and Scottsdale, Arizona.
Clearwater, Florida, at 21 percent, had the highest proportion 65 years and over, followed by Cape Coral, Florida at 20 percent and Honolulu, Hawaii at 18 percent.

SPEAKER NOTES: Census 2000 showed 245 places in the United States with 100,000 or more population. They included 238 incorporated places (including 4 city-county consolidations) and 7 census designated places that were not legally incorporated. For a list of these places by state, see www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/phc-16.html.
Honolulu, Hawaii, is a census designated place and is not legally incorporated.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 1.

- Gilbert, AZ, Fontana, CA, and Plano, TX, had the lowest proportion 65 years and over.

**Notes:**
Now we will look at the ten places of 100,000 or more population with the lowest proportion 65 years and over.
Gilbert, AZ, Fontana, CA, and Plano, TX, had the lowest proportion 65 years and over. 

**Notes:**
Gilbert, Arizona, had the lowest proportion of 65 year and over population with 3.8 percent, followed by Fontana, California at 4.7 percent and Plano, Texas at 4.9 percent.
Eight of the ten places with the lowest proportion of age 65 years and over are located in the West; the remaining two places are located in the South. 

SPEAKER NOTES: Census 2000 showed 245 places in the United States with 100,000 or more population. They included 238 incorporated places (including 4 city-county consolidations) and 7 census designated places that were not legally incorporated. For a list of these places by state, see www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/phc-t6.html.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 1.

- The proportion of 65 years and over in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was 14.1 percent, the highest of the Nation’s ten largest cities.

**Notes:**
Of the ten largest cities in the Nation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 14.1 percent, had the highest proportion of 65 years and over, exceeding  the national level of 12.4 percent.

**Notes:**
The ten largest cities and their proportion 65 years and over are:
	New York, NY, at 11.7 percent
	Los Angeles, CA, at 9.7 percent
	Chicago, IL, at 10.3 percent
	Houston,TX, at 8.4 percent
	Philadelphia, PA, at 14.1 percent
	Phoenix, AZ, at 8.1 percent
	San Diego, CA, at 10.5 percent
	Dallas, TX, at 8.6  percent 
	San Antonio, TX, at 10.4 percent and
	Detroit, MI, at 10.4 percent
Of these cities, only Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 14.1 percent, had a proportion that exceeded the national level of 12.4 percent.

- The percent of people
- 65 years and over in nursing homes declined between 1990 and 2000.

**Notes:**
Next we will take a look at some additional topics on the 65 years and over population. 
The percent of people 65 years and over living in nursing homes declined from 5.1 percent in 1990 to 4.5 percent in 2000.

**Notes:**
This percent decline occurred for people 65 to 74 years, 75 to 84 years, and especially in the population 85 years and over, where only 18.2 percent lived in nursing homes in 2000, compared with 24.5 percent in 1990. Ninety-one percent of the nursing home population was 65 years and over in 2000, compared with 90 percent in 1990.

- The number of centenarians in the United States increased between
- 1990 and 2000.

**Notes:**
The number of centenarians, people aged 100 or more, in the United States increased from 37,306 people in 1990 to over 50,000 (50,454) in 2000. This is an increase of 13,148 or 35 percent.
The greatest number of centenarians (5,341) lived in California in 2000, followed by 3,997 centenarians in New York.
South Dakota, with 247 centenarians (1 out of every 3,056 people), and Iowa, with 941 centenarians (1 out of every 3,110 people), had the highest proportion of their population 100 years and over.

## For More Information

**For More Information**

- Visit the Census Bureau’s website:

***http://www.census.gov***

- Call our Customer Services Center at: 301-763-INFO (4636)

- • e-mail
***   ******webmaster@census.gov***