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Danielle Kurtzleben
There are issues other than funding Social Security and Medicare
The baby boomer population is edging into retirement. But is the United States ready?
On a national level, perhaps the biggest concern about keeping up with the nation's aging boomers is that of entitlements. Projections of a national debt spiraling ever upward have prompted politicians to consider cuts to benefits for
But local politics and programs are also of particular consequence to the boom generation, particularly as the budget fight that rages on
Still, many cities have weathered their fiscal woes admirably, in terms of the services they maintained for their aging populations through the recession. Jo Reed, a senior program manager at the
Two areas that may particularly suffer are transportation and housing, which the survey showed to be localities' second- and third-biggest challenges to planning for an aging population. Three-quarters of communities have not yet begun to provide mobility management services to older adults, helping them to understand their transit options and how to use them. And subsidized housing availability benefiting older adults slipped to 63 percent in 2010 from 70 percent in 2005. Though these concerns may not currently be pressing concerns to many boomers, particularly those on the younger end of that generation, Allen says that such programs must be improved in many places in order to accommodate the coming wave of senior citizens.
According to a
Metro Area | Population | Boomer Population | Boomer % |
---|---|---|---|
Source: U.S. Census Bureau | |||
Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, Maine | 516,826 | 154,375 | 29.9% |
Santa Rosa-Petaluma, Calif. | 472,102 | 138,980 | 29.4% |
Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa. | 562,963 | 163,965 | 29.1% |
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla. | 536,357 | 155,219 | 28.9% |
Pittsburgh, Pa. | 2,354,957 | 681,248 | 28.9% |
Charleston, W.Va. | 304,298 | 87,978 | 28.9% |
Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, Tenn.-Va. | 302,887 | 87,395 | 28.9% |
Canton-Massillon, Ohio | 407,897 | 117,453 | 28.8% |
York-Hanover, Pa. | 428,937 | 122,714 | 28.6% |
Rochester, N.Y. | 1,035,566 | 294,196 | 28.4% |
These are the 10 metro areas whose populations have the lowest shares of baby boomers.
Metro Area | Population | Boomer Population | Boomer % |
---|---|---|---|
Source: U.S. Census Bureau | |||
Provo-Orem, Utah | 554,965 | 82,473 | 14.9% |
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas | 741,152 | 129,309 | 17.4% |
Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Texas | 379,231 | 74,211 | 19.6% |
Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas | 396,371 | 77,838 | 19.6% |
Ogden-Clearfield, Utah | 542,642 | 112,185 | 20.7% |
Visalia-Porterville, Calif. | 429,668 | 89,535 | 20.8% |
Fayetteville, N.C. | 360,355 | 75,848 | 21.0% |
Salt Lake City, Utah | 1,130,293 | 238,262 | 21.1% |
El Paso, Texas | 751,296 | 160,353 | 21.3% |
Fresno, Calif. | 915,267 | 196,902 | 21.5% |
Source: "Boomer Population" counts include all people listed as ages 45 through 64 in the 2009 survey.
It should be noted that these numbers can be misleading. That a city has a large share of boomers does not necessarily mean that boomers are flocking there; rather, it can also mean that people from other age groups, particularly younger people, are leaving for other places, according to William Frey, demographer at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank the
Of course, those cities that have small shares of baby boomers among their populations are not exempt from facing the challenges of impending demographic shifts. According to a 2009 study by the
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