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Median Age
About This Indicator
What Is the Median Age?
The age that splits the population in half, from the Census Bureau's population estimates for July 1 of each year. In 1900, half of all Americans were younger than 23.
Why Does It Matter?
An older country has fewer workers paying in for each retiree, which strains Social Security and Medicare, and it needs fewer school seats and more clinics. In the twentieth century it fell only in the baby-boom years, from 30.2 in 1952 to 27.8 in 1969, as a wave of births added young people faster than everyone else aged.
Can Politics Influence It?
Barely. Births, deaths, and the aging of the baby boom set it; immigration, which brings mostly younger adults, is the most direct lever policy holds, and even it moves the line slowly.
Key Idea
It rises both when people live longer and when fewer babies are born, two changes few people would weigh the same way.
Not Scored
Source: Census Bureau. Population estimates: table PE-11 for 1900-1979, the intercensal estimates for 1980-2019, and the newest vintage from 2020.
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