Census: Number of 65-year-olds in state soars

The number of 65-year-olds in New York State increased an astounding 30 percent between mid-2011 and mid-2012, according to new census estimates -- a sign of the baby-boom generation's impact as it starts to hit retirement age.

A broader analysis of the elderly population since the 2010 Census showed Suffolk County had the largest numeric increase in the 65-and-over age group of any county in the state, according to a Cornell University researcher.

"It is a huge increase in one year," Jan Vink, who is with Cornell's Program on Applied Demographics, said of the statewide increase in 65-year-olds. "That's the 'baby boom,' " he said, citing people born in the post-World War II years of 1946 through 1964. The firstborn of the baby boomers reached the standard retirement age of 65 in 2011.

The 2012 population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday show that 65-year-olds in the state numbered 169,232 in July 2011, and a year later had risen to 219,896.

Vink, in a report highlighting age and race data in the 2012 census estimates, said his analysis of the 65-and-over group in New York showed Suffolk's elderly population grew by 15,048 people between the 2010 Census and July 2012.

"It's the largest increase of any county in the state," Vink said. He ranked Suffolk first, followed by Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Nassau County. He said Nassau's 65-and-over population grew by 8,453 people during the same period.

Those aged 65 and up in New York State grew 5.3 percent from 2010 to 2012 -- from 2,617,943 to 2,757,572. They represent 14.1 percent of the state's population, Vink said.

The median age in New York in 2012 was 38.1 years, the data show. Long Island's median age was higher: 41.6 years in Nassau and 40.6 in Suffolk.

Nationally, the 65-and-over population grew 4.3 percent between 2011 and 2012, and they comprise 13.7 percent of the total population, census officials said.

The nation's median age climbed to 37.5 years in 2012, up from 37.3 a year earlier.

Census officials, added, however, that in some parts of the country, the population was getting younger. Six states saw a median age decline, led by North Dakota, with a half-year drop to 36.1 years. The other states -- and Washington, D.C., a state equivalent -- had smaller declines. Those states and their median ages were Alaska (33.7); Hawaii (38.3); Kansas (36); Oklahoma (36.2); and Washington, D.C. (33.6).

Cornell's program is a coordinating agency within the New York State Data Center and is the state's representative on the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Estimates.