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The U.S. median age is nearing 40 years — hitting a record high last year — according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday.
The nation’s median age rose to 38.9 years in 2022, following decades of steady increases. Two decades earlier, in 2000, the median age stood at 35.3 years, while in 1980, it was 30 years.
Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division, pointed to the aging of baby boomers and their children, as well as declining birth rates, for the continued rise in median age.
“As the nation’s median age creeps closer to 40, you can really see how the aging of baby boomers, and now their children — sometimes called echo boomers — is impacting the median age,” Wilder said in a press release.
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“While natural change nationally has been positive, as there have been more births than deaths, birth rates have gradually declined over the past two decades,” she added. “Without a rapidly growing young population, the U.S. median age will likely continue its slow but steady rise.”
On the state level, Maine had the highest median age at 44.8 years, while Utah had the lowest at 31.9 years, the Census data found. No state saw a decrease in 2022, although the median age in four states and the District of Columbia remained the same as last year.
About a third of all states had a median age over 40 years, and seven counties had a median age over 60 years, according to the Census data.
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