Long Island population aging, gaining diversity

Long Island's population, matching national trends, is aging and becoming more diverse, with Asians making some of the largest single-year percentage gains, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released Thursday.

Nassau and Suffolk counties posted higher median ages than that of New York State and the country as a whole, according to the 2013 estimates that examine population changes by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin.

Nassau's median age in 2013 was 41.6 and Suffolk's was 40.9. The state median age was 38.2 and the nation's was 37.6.

"We're seeing two population booms," Census Bureau director John Thompson said in a statement. "The population of the Great Plains energy boom states is becoming younger and more male as workers move in seeking employment in the oil and gas industry, while the U.S. as a whole continues to age as the youngest of the baby-boom generation enters their 50s."

An analysis of the latest census data on New York State by Jan Vink, a researcher with Cornell University's Program on Applied Demographics, found the state's median age increased slightly between 2010 and 2013, rising from 38 to 38.2.

During the same time period, Vink said, the state's 65-and-over population grew 8.2 percent. That group comprised 14.4 percent of the state's 19.6 million people in 2013, up from 13.5 percent in 2010, he said.

The 65-and-over population increased 6.6 percent in Nassau and 10.8 percent in Suffolk between 2010 and 2013, Newsday's analysis showed.

The census data show the nation continues to see gains in its minority population, which also is reflected on Long Island.

"Asians were the fastest-growing group from 2012 to 2013, though that distinction has alternated between Asians and Hispanics over the years," the bureau said. The Asian population nationally grew by almost 2.9 percent, to 19.4 million people.

Newsday's analysis of census figures shows that Asians on the Island had the second-largest percentage increase between 2012 and 2013, growing 3.48 percent in Nassau for a 2013 total of 117,713 people, and 3.10 percent in Suffolk, for a 2013 total of 57,302 residents.

Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders had a larger percentage increase in Nassau, at 5.93 percent, and grew 2.13 percent in Suffolk. Their numbers are far lower, with about 1,200 people in both counties, census data show.

The Hispanic population in Nassau during the same period grew by 2.55 percent, to 212,005 people, and by 2.44 percent in Suffolk, to 265,513 people. Hispanics can be of any race.

Other minority groups saw their populations grow on the Island, too: The number of African-Americans rose by 1.81 percent in Nassau to 167,173 people, and by 1.29 percent in Suffolk, for a 2013 total of 123,375. The far smaller Native American population grew by 1.8 percent in Nassau, to 6,401 people in 2013, and nearly 2.2 percent in Suffolk, to 8,596.

Nassau's total estimated population in 2013 was 1,352,146 and Suffolk's was 1,499,738.

Non-Hispanic whites remain the largest racial group on Long Island, as well as in the nation and in New York State. But their numbers on the Island declined slightly from 2012 to 2013, dipping 0.94 percent in Nassau to 856,075 people, and 0.70 percent in Suffolk to 1,050,804.

Non-Hispanic whites were the only group that had more deaths than births over the one-year period, the bureau reported. However, because of migration, the bureau said the non-Hispanic white population nationally rose 0.1 percent, for an estimated total of 197.8 million, or 62.6 percent of the nation's population in 2013, down from 63 percent in 2012.