Charts are keyboard readable: focus a chart, then use the left and right arrow keys to step by month, hold Shift to step by year, Home and End for the first and last month, Escape to let go.In the timeline, use the arrow keys to step the month the chart reads.
The Age of America
About This Indicator
What Does This Chart Show?
The population split into four age groups: children under 18, adults 18 to 44, adults 45 to 64, and people 65 and over. From the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, yearly since 2005; there was no 2020 release.
What It Says
Each slice swells as a large generation passes through it. In the 1970 census children outnumbered people 65 and over by more than three to one; by the 2020 census it was about four to three.
Key Idea
Children are paid for mostly by parents and by state and local taxes, older people largely through Social Security and Medicare, so as the country ages, more of the bill for those too young or too old to work moves to Washington. The baby boom, born from 1946 to 1964, turns 65 from 2011 through 2029, and no election changes that arithmetic.
Source: Census Bureau. American Community Survey 1-year, Table B01001.
Loading the dataset…