Baby Boomer Boom: Seniors Post Decade's Biggest U.S. Population Gains

The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that the baby boomer population expanded in the past decade by 13.8 million people, or 34.2 percent, pushing the national median age from 37.2 years in 2010 to 38.4 years in 2019, reports the Washington Times . "No other age group saw such a fast increase," said the Census Bureau's Luke Rogers. The boomer explosion has driven up the ratio of dependents to nondependents, with the dependent population — those 14 and younger and 65 and older — rising versus the working population, from 49 dependents per working-age person to 53.7. The 65-and-up segment grew by 3.2 percent, or 1.69 million, from 2018 to 2019 alone. The oldest states last year were Maine, Florida, West Virginia, and Vermont, where one in five residents were 65 or older. The oldest county was Sumter County in Florida, with a median age of 68.1 in 2019.