Sumter County is the grayest county in the United States, with more than half (52.9%) of its residents are 65 and older, according to new data from Pew Research Center.
Perhaps not surprisingly the county ranking second in percentage of people who are 65 and older is also in the Sunshine State. In Charlotte County, Fla., the percentage of people 65 and older is 37.7%. Charlotte County is followed by La Paz County in Arizona (36.1%) and Citrus County in Florida (35.2%).
In Florida, 53 of 67 counties have an above-average share of people 65 and older when compared with the percentage of Americans in that demographic, Pew data show.
On average, a U.S. county’s 65-and-older population grew by 12.4% from 2010 to 2014.
“Some counties are ‘aging’ much more rapidly than others,” Pew Research says in the study. “Several counties in Colorado are among them. Douglas County, Colo., just south of Denver, led the nation with a 53.7% increase in the 65-and-older group from 2010 to 2014. Two other Colorado counties, Routt, on the Wyoming border, and Elbert, southeast of Denver, rounded out the top three, with growth rates above 50%.”
But not all counties are aging. Three percent of counties have seen a drop in the 65-and-older demographic since 2010. Oklahoma’s small Alfalfa County, on the Kansas border, had the highest rate of decrease in the 65-and-older population, at 9.5%, data show.
Access the study here.
Written by Cassandra Dowell
