Missouri and the Nation Change in Population Age 65 and older in Missouri and U.S During the 1990s The proportion of population age 65 and older has been increasing in many countries throughout the world in recent decades. That has been especially the case in many European countries. An increasing proportion of older population is creating concern about future labor force and social obligations for retirement pensions and provision of health care. That has been less true in the United States although the future viability of Social Security and Medicare funds have become an important national budgetary issue. National Change The U.S population age 65 and older increased from 31,241,831 in 1990 to 34,991,753 in 2000 - an increase of 12.0 percent, slightly less than the 13.2 percent increase in total population during the 1990s. The smaller increase in that age cohort during the 1990s was at least partially attributable to the low birth rate during the depression of the 1930s - the decade of birth of today's 65 year olds. However, within the next few years the 65 and older population will begin to increase significantly with the aging of the large baby boom population, currently in the 35-60 age cohort. Map 1 click map for larger version Although the population age 65 and older accounted for only 12.4 percent of the nation's total population in 2000, there were ten states in which the 65 and older population was greater than 13.7 percent of state population. As shown on Map 1 those states are concentrated in the upper Midwest and the Northeast. Exceptions are Florida and Arkansas, states to which many seniors move to retire. Florida leads the nation with 17.6 percent of state population in the 65 and older cohort in 2000. There was great variation among the states in the number and rate of increase of the 65 and over population during the 1990s. The largest increases occurred in California, Florida and Texas with increases of 473,799, 438,954, and 364,274 respectively (Table 1). Those three states accounted for 34 percent of the nation's increase of 65 and older population during the 1990s. Many other states, which had smaller senior populations in 1990, had much greater percentage increases during the decade. Leading those states was Nevada with an increase of 72.1 percent, followed by Alaska with 61.1 percent, Arizona with 39.9 percent, New Mexico with 30.6 percent and Hawaii with 28.8 percent. There were nine additional states in which the 65 and older population increased by more than 20 percent during the 1990s. The states with the greatest percentage increases in senior population are generally states that had significant in-migration of population of all ages during the 1990s. At the other extreme, there were 13 states in which senior population increased by less than six percent during the 1990s. Those states, including Missouri, were largely concentrated in the Midwest and Northeast. Missouri and Its Neighbors Missouri's senior population (age 65 and older increased from 717,851 in 1990 to 755,379 in 2000 - an increase of only 5.2 percent. That was the 40th lowest increase in the senior cohort in the country - far below the national increase of 12.0 percent. Missouri did, however, rank 13th nationally with 13.5 percent of its population age 65 and older in 2000. However, that was down from 10th nationally in 1990 when 14.0 percent of Missouri's population was age 65 and older. Among Missouri's neighboring states only Iowa, Arkansas and Nebraska - with 14.9, 14.0 and 13.6 percent respectively - had a higher percentage of their population in the 65 and older age cohort than Missouri. However, there really is relatively little difference among the eight states in proportion of population age 65 and older. Following Missouri were Kansas (13.3 percent), Oklahoma (13.2 percent) Kentucky (12.5 percent), Tennessee (12.4 percent) and Illinois (12.1). Missouri's neighboring states generally had a very low rate of senior population growth during the 1990s. Tennessee was the exception with a senior population increase of 13.7 percent. After Tennessee, the next greatest senior population increase was Kentucky with 8.1 percent followed by Oklahoma with 7.6 percent, Arkansas 6.9 percent, Missouri 5.2 percent, Illinois 4.6 percent, Nebraska 4.1 percent, Kansas 4.0 percent and Iowa 2.4 percent. In fact, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Illinois - all having significant farm populations - have, for several decades, experienced out-migration of some older population apparently retiring to states having a more moderate climate. Missouri's 2000 population of 5.59 million ranked 17th in population among the 50 states. Although Missouri's population increased by 9.3 percent during the 1990s, well above the 4.1 percent population growth rate in the 1980s, the state dropped from the 15th most populated state in 1990 to 17th. Missouri's fall in rank occurred because, as shown in Table 1 and displayed on Map 1, there were 25 states whose population increased by more than 10 percent during the 1990s. Those states were mostly concentrated in the West, Southwest and Southeast. Among Missouri's eight neighboring states, only Illinois has a larger population. With the exception of Tennessee whose 2000 population was virtually identical with Missouri, the remaining six neighbors had a smaller population. In order, Kentucky had a population of 4.0 million, Oklahoma had 3.5 million, Iowa had 2.9 million, Kansas and Arkansas each and Nebraska had 1.7 million. The Largest States California had the nation's largest population in both 1990 and 2000. The California population increased from 29.7 million in 1990 to 33.9 million in 2000. The 4.1 million increase in population during the 1990s was also the greatest increase among the states. Following California, Texas has, in 2000, become the nation's second most populated state with 20.85 million, followed by New York with 18.98 million and Florida with 15.98 million. After those four states, Illinois with 12.42 million, Pennsylvania with 12.28 million and Ohio with 11.35 million were the only additional states with a 2000 population in excess of 10 million. These seven states had a combined population of 125.7 million in 2000 - 44.7 percent of the nation's total population. Among the seven most populated states, only Florida with an increase of 23.5 percent, Texas with an increase of 22.8 percent and California with an increase of 13.8 percent had a rate of population increase above the national average. The remaining four of the seven most populated states each had a population growth rate during the 1990s well below the national average. Among the four, Illinois had the greatest growth rate with an increase 8.6 percent (rank 34th nationally), followed by New York with an increase of 5.5 percent, (rank 42nd), Ohio with an increase of 4.7 percent (rank 44th) and Pennsylvania with an increase of 3.4 percent (rank 48th). The Smaller States Comparatively, most states have a relatively small population. After the seven largest states discussed above, there are seven additional states having a population of between six and ten million. The remaining 36 states have a population of less than 6 million - 17 of those had a population of less than two million and, of those, seven had a population of less than a million. Two of the smallest seven, Vermont and Delaware, are on the East Coast, the remaining five including Alaska are northern plains states. Detailed Tables Total Population Age 65 Years or Older, 2000, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Total Population Age 65 Years or Older, 1990, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Change in Population Age 65 Years or Older, 1990-2000, for All U.S. States HTML PDF Population Age 65 Years or Older as a Percent of Total Population, 2000, for All U.S. States    HTML PDF Percent Change in Population Age 65 Years or Older, 1990-2000, for All U.S. States    HTML PDF