Department of Health and
Human Services
Administration on Aging
Back
to Previous | Main | Next
Statistics
A Profile of
Older Americans: 2007
The
Older Population
The
older population--persons 65 years or older--numbered 37.3 million in
2006 (the
most recent year for which data are available). They represented 12.4%
of the
U.S.
population, about one in every eight Americans. The number of older
Americans increased by 3.3 million or
9.7% since 1996, compared to
an increase of 13.3% for the under-65 population. However,
the number of
Americans aged 45-64 – who will reach 65 over the next two decades –
increased
by 39% during this period.
In
2006, there were 21.6 million older women and 15.7 million older men,
or a sex
ratio of 138 women for every 100 men. The female to male sex ratio
increases
with age, ranging from 114 for the 65-69 age group to a high of 213 for
persons
85 and over.
Since
1900, the percentage of Americans 65+ has tripled (from 4.1% in 1900 to
12.4%
in 2006), and the number has increased twelve times (from 3.1 million
to 37.3
million). The older population itself is getting older. In
2006, the
65-74 age group (18.9 million) was over 8.7 times larger than in 1900,
but the
75-84 group (13.0 million) was 17 times larger and the 85+ group (5.3
million)
was 43 times larger.
In
2004, persons reaching age 65 had an average life expectancy of an
additional
18.7 years (20.0 years for females and 17.1 years for males).
A child
born in 2004 could expect to live 77.9 years, about 30 years longer
than a
child born in 1900. Much of this increase occurred because of
reduced
death rates for children and young adults. However, the
period of
1984-2004 also has seen reduced death rates for the population aged
65-84,
especially for men – by 32.6% for men aged 65-74 and by 25.5% for men
aged
75-84. Life expectancy at age 65 increased by only 2.5 years
between 1900
and 1960, but has increased by 4.3 years from 1960 to 2004.
Over
2.2 million persons celebrated their 65th birthday in 2006. In the same
year,
about 1.8 million persons 65 or older died. Census estimates
showed an
annual net increase of almost 500,000 in the number of persons 65 and
over.
There
were 73,674 persons aged 100 or more in 2006 (0.19% of the total
population). This is a 97% increase from the 1990 figure of
37,306.
(Data
for this section were compiled primarily from Internet releases of the
U.S.
Bureau of the Census and the National Center for Health Statistics/Trends
in Health and Aging Data
Warehouse.
Back
to Previous | Main | Next
AoA - Statistics - A Profile of Older Americans
2007 - Future Growth |
Dept. of Health & Human Services
