Mapping Baby Boomers Across the U.S.

The September issue of Governing kicks off a series examining the nation's aging population and growing number of soon-to-be retirees.

Recent census estimates show much of the country is getting older. It's a trend that's expected to continue as baby boomers exit the workforce and enter the next phase of their lives. By 2030, AARP projects one in three Americans will be age 50 or older.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines boomers as being born from 1946 to 1964. About 26.4 percent Americans counted in the 2010 Census identified themselves as being between the ages of 45 and 64, roughly the same age group.

The following counties with total populations exceeding 100,000 had the highest such concentration of boomers:

County	2010 Population	Age 45 to 64 Count	45 to 64 (%)
Hunterdon County, New Jersey	128,349	44,350	34.6
El Dorado County, California	181,058	60,462	33.4
Litchfield County, Connecticut	189,927	62,862	33.1
Fayette County, Georgia	106,567	35,165	33
Rockingham County, New Hampshire	295,223	96,485	32.7
Sussex County, New Jersey	149,265	48,695	32.6
Marin County, California	252,409	82,143	32.5
Barnstable County, Massachusetts	215,888	70,005	32.4
Santa Fe County, New Mexico	144,170	46,606	32.3
York County, Maine	197,131	62,441	31.7

Here's a map showing baby boomers across all U.S. counties, with areas home to the highest concentrations of boomers in dark purple. Click the map to open afull-screen interactive version with figures for each county.

bb-map-large.jpg

For comparison, here's another map shaded based on each county's 2010 median age, with older localities in dark blue (click to open full-screen interactive map):

median-age-large.jpg

Utah recorded a median age of only 29.2 in 2010, more than four percentage points lower than Texas, the next-youngest state. If you notice Utah atop any ranking of states, there's a good chance it can be explained by the state's high population of young people.

Maine was the nation's oldest state, with a median age of 42.7.