The US population is older than it has ever been

WASHINGTON - The median age in the United States reached a record high of 38.9 in 2022, according to data released on Thursday by the US Census Bureau.

It is a rapid rise. In 2000, the median age was 35, and in 1980, the median was 30.

While many 38-year-old millennials may still feel young, that age is an unusually high median for the country.

Why it matters: The nation is ageing and has fewer children

The new data adds to the evidence that like many European and Asian nations, the US is greying, posing challenges for the workforce, the economy and social programmes.

Low birth rates are the main driver of the nation’s rising median age, said experts.

“It’s simple arithmetic,” said Mr Andrew Beveridge, president of Social Explorer, a demographic data firm. “Fewer kids are being born.”

Birth rates fell steeply in the first year or so of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, they have ticked up.

Still, since the beginning of the Great Recession, in 2007, fertility has remained very low compared with previous generations.

The trend is international, even affecting countries with much stronger social programmes than the US, such as Norway, Sweden and Finland, which heavily subsidise childcare.

Across industrialised nations, women of the millennial generation have been more likely to prioritise education and work in their 20s, leading to them marrying older and having fewer children, according to researchers.

Among 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 bureau.

Among counties with populations of over 100,000, the oldest was Sumter County, Florida, where The Villages retirement community is partially based. The median age there was 68.1. The youngest large 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.

A nation of immigrants with sluggish immigration rates

The new census data covers the period up to July 2022.

And while it shows the US population is older than it ever has been, the nation remains younger than its peers in Europe, where the median age is 44, said Mr Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire.

Immigration has historically kept the US young, as immigrants are generally working-age adults and often have more children than native-born Americans.

While immigration has

recovered from rock-bottom levels

during the pandemic, it has, overall, slowed since 2016.

What is next: A more diverse United States

As the nation ages, it is also becoming more diverse. Between 2021 and 2022, the nation’s Asian population grew by 2.4 per cent, the Hispanic population by 1.7 per cent, the Black population by 0.9 per cent, and the white population by 0.1 per cent.

The Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander population increased by 1.8 per cent and the American Indian population increased by 1.3 per cent.

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 large counties, Kaufman County, Texas, a booming exurb of Dallas, had the nation’s fastest-growing Black population, growing by 21 per cent – more than 6,000 residents – between 2021 and 2022. The median age there was a relatively youthful 33.9 in 2022. NYTIMES