US Median Age Hits All-Time High of 38; Record 86,000 Are 100 or Older

The U.S. median age last year rose to a record 38 years, according to estimates released this week from the Census Bureau. In 2000, the median age was 37.2 years.

The number of people who were 100 years old or older hit a record 86,248, the data show.

"Baby boomers, and millennials alike, are responsible for this trend in increased aging,” said Molly Cromwell, a demographer at the U.S. Census Bureau. “Boomers continue to age and are slowly outnumbering children as the birth rate has declined steadily over the last decade.”

By 2035, Americans age 65 and older are forecast to outnumber kids for the first time.

While the majority of counties in the U.S. continued to grow older, about half of the counties getting younger were in the Midwest. “Williams County, N.D., had the largest decrease in median age, declining by 7.1 years,” Cromwell said.

The nation’s population increasingly is living in metropolitan areas.

Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona, gained one spot to move ahead of San Francisco as the 11th largest metro area. In the buckeye state, Columbus moved ahead of Cleveland.

New York led all states in domestic migration as more than 1 million people have left the state since April 1, 2010.

In the 12 months ending July 1, 2017, about 191,000 people left New York and 138,000 left California.

But, California was net positive as 164,867 international migrants moved to the state. Net migration was negative in 14 states plus Puerto Rico last year.

America is becoming more diverse by race and ethnicity. Non-Hispanic whites are shrinking in population, while all other race and ethnic groups grew between 2016 and 2017.

The non-Hispanic white population decreased 0.02 percent to 197.8 million.
The Hispanic population increased 2.1 percent to 58.9 million, and made up 18.1 percent of the nation’s total population in 2017. The gain was primarily due to natural increases (the difference between births and deaths), not net migration.
- California had the largest Hispanic population at 15.5 million
More blacks or African-Americans moved to Clark County, Nevada, where Las Vegas is located, than to any other county (14,000).
- The black or African-American population increased 1.2 percent to 47.4 million.
The Asian population, the fastest-growing racial group in the nation, increased 3.1 percent to 22.2 million. Their increase is primarily due to net migration.
- In Hawaii, Asians represented a majority of the population