Over 95 percent of all veterans are males. Due to the relatively large number of women serving in World War II and the Korean conflict, the number of aged female veterans is expected to grow, doubling by the year 2000 from 1980 levels. However, current projections estimate that only 4.4 percent of aged veterans will be females. After the year 2000, the number of female veterans is expected to decrease temporarily only to steadily increase again after the year 2015 as women who served during the Vietnam war and the post-Vietnam era reach old age.

The number and proportion of veterans age 75-plus are also expected to increase. Today, 20 percent of all elderly veterans are age 75 and over. By the year 2000, 44 percent will be in this age group. This proportion is expected to increase gradually so that by 2020 almost half, 47 percent, of all veterans will be 75-plus.

G. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION AND MOBILITY

OVER HALF OF THE COUNTRY'S ELDERLY LIVE IN EIGHT STATES In 1985, almost half of the country's older population lived in eight States: California, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. Each of these States had over a million persons age 65-plus (table 1-7). In comparison, some States had very small older populations. Alaska, for instance, had the smallest number of elderly persons in 1985, about 3 percent of its total population (17,000). However, Alaska, along with Nevada, also experi

enced the largest increases-over 40 percent-in their elderly populations between 1980 and 1985.

Sixteen out of 21 northern States had percentages of elderly above the national average, while only 9 out of 29 southern and western States were above the national level.

TABLE 1-7.-GROWTH OF EACH STATE'S ELDERLY POPULATION: 1970-80 AND 1980-85

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, State Population and Household Estimates to 1985, With Age and Components of Change. Current Population Report, Series P-25, No. 998.

69-866 - 87 - 2

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Report, Series P-25, No. 998

Most States had at least a 50-percent increase in the number of persons 85 and over between 1970 and 1980 while Arizona, Florida, and Nevada experienced more than a doubling in the size of their 85-plus population. During this decade, Nevada experienced the largest increase of persons 65 and over, 113 percent, and New York, the smallest, 10.8 percent (see chart 1-11 and table 1-7).

Florida's elderly population grew by the largest amount (313,000) in the 1980's and has the largest proportion of residents age 65plus. In fact, the proportion of elderly in Florida-17.6 percent-is close to the proportion expected nationally in the year 2020. Florida is also the Nation's oldest State with a median age of 34.7 in 1980 as compared with the youngest State, Utah, with a median age of 24.4.

Houston, TX, was the metropolitan area with the smallest percentage of elderly in 1980, with less than 7 percent. In absolute numbers, only the New York metropolitan area had over 1 million elderly residents.

(NOTE.-Unless otherwise noted, statistics in this chapter on the geographic distribution of the elderly in 1980 are from the U.S. Bureau of Census, 1980 Decennial Census of the Population. Statistics for growth from 1980 to 1985 are from the Bureau of the Census.)

OLDER PERSONS CHANGE RESIDENCES LESS OFTEN THAN YOUNGER

PERSONS

Today's older generation tends to remain where they have spent most of their adult lives. For both adults and children, rates of

moving decline with increasing age. The highest rate of moving is among adults in their early twenties. Between 1982 and 1983, only 4.9 percent of older persons moved, compared to 34.5 percent of 20to 24-year-olds and 16.6 percent of persons of all ages.

4

As a result of younger people moving away and older people staying, some areas of the country are becoming "grayer." There are now over 500 rural and small town counties in which persons 65 and over make up at least 16 percent of the total pupulation; in 178 counties the elderly make up over 20 percent of the total population. Over half of these counties, especially in the Nation's heartland, are agricultural areas where the older population has stayed on while the younger generation has moved out. Heavy out-migration of the young and relatively low fertility have contributed to a high proportion of elderly in such States as Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania.

IN 1980, FOR THE FIRST TIME, A GREATER NUMBER OF 65-PLUS PERSONS LIVED IN THE SUBURBS THAN IN THE CENTRAL CITIES

The growth of the suburban elderly population has touched every major region of the United States. According to results of a nationwide sample of 2,300 suburbs, the average suburban population in 1980 was 11.8 percent elderly.5 For the first time, in 1980, a greater number of older persons lived in the suburbs (10.1 million) than in central cities (8.1 million). Older persons found disproportionately in suburbs which were established before World War II. These older suburbs also have lower average resident income levels, more rental housing, lower home values, and higher population densities. (NOTE.-Statistics describing the graying of the suburbs should not be confused with those that document that more elderly live in metropolitan areas than nonmetropolitan (primarily rural) areas. Generally, most suburbs are included in metropolitan statistics making interpretation difficult. For instance, according to the 1980 census, almost two-thirds of the elderly lived in "metropolitan areas"-many of which include outlying areas that are defined as suburbs by other measures.)

THOSE SENIORS WHO MOVE TEND TO MIGRATE TO THE SUN BELT

Other parts of the country-such as the Sunbelt States-are also experiencing an aging of their population due to the migration of older persons during their early retirement years. These retirees are following a general migration pattern occuring throughout the country (see chart 1-12 and table 1-8).

Between 1980 and 1985 the increase in the elderly population continued to be more rapid in the South and West. But elderly growth rates were the most notable in the Midwest and Northeast because of an extremely slow growth rate among the elderly.

4U.S. Bureau of the Census. Prepared by Cynthia M. Taeuber. America in Transition: An Aging Society. Series P-23, No. 128.

5 Logan, John R. The Graying of the Suburbs. Aging. 1984