Maine, New Hampshire, and nine other states now have more adults over 65 than minors, based on a Thursday report from the U.S. Census Bureau that also revealed that Maine has the oldest population of any state.
Using 2024 data, the Census Bureau revealed a significant increase in the percentage of the U.S. population over 65, which rose by three percent from 2023-2024 to 18 percent, while the percentage of minors nationwide dropped by 0.2 percent.
In 2004, minors made up 25 percent of the population, but that number dropped to just 21.5 percent in 2024. That drop, compared with the increase in adults over 65, led to those 65 and older outnumbering minors in eleven states in the newly released 2024 data.
In 2020, there were just three states in which senior citizens outnumbered children: Maine, Vermont, and Florida. However, that number rose significantly in just four years, with Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia now included.
Out of all of New England, only Connecticut and Massachusetts still have more children than adults aged over 65.
The same data revealed that senior citizens outnumber minors in nearly half – 45 percent – of U.S. counties.
The median national age reached a new all-time high of 39.1 last year, with Maine’s population being the oldest at a median age of 44.8. Utah had the youngest population with a median age of 32.4. While nearly a quarter (23 percent) of Mainers are over 65 years old, in Utah only 12.2 percent of residents are in a stark, nearly 2:1 contrast.
Mother, pass me the Fixodent, will you?
Whites were the only racial group to decline from 2023 to 2024, dropping by 226,072 people. Hispanics and Latin Americans saw the largest population growth in the same time period, increasing by 1,943,997.
The increasing share of elderly Americans and the declining number of children could spell doom for many of the country’s entitlement programs, particularly Social Security, which relies on taxes from working Americans to subsidize retirees.
