This post introduces a recently developed Tableau tool on aging demographics that we hope will further enhance the region’s knowledge base, as well as serve as support for the Living Beyond Expectations Plan. The dashboard presents 2000-2019 population trends — in total and by race/ ethnicity — at the 10-county region and county level for the 65+ and 75+ age groups. The source of the data are the Population Estimates Program from the Census Bureau, and will remain the most current  detailed age data at the county level until the release of those variables from the 2020 Census.

Figures 1 and 2 show the first two tabs of the tool: for the 65+ and 75+ cohorts, absolute numbers from 2000-2019 and percent shares of total population. As most know, the growth has been remarkable, and while the 65+ numbers and shares do dwarf comparable data for the 75+ group, that 75+ group has grown far faster on a percentage basis in the last two decades.

An added (and more unusual) component of the dashboard is the analysis possibilities that its data provide for aging trends by age and ethnicity. As Figures 3 and 4 show, the aging phenomenon in 2000 was largely isolated in the white, non-Hispanic older cohorts. But by 2019, there are much larger for Black, Asian, and Hispanic numbers of and shares in the 65+ and 75+ age groups. White, non-Hispanic 65+ and 75+ population is still much larger, but diversity in the older groupings is increasing at a much faster rate. And the diversity is just getting started — it’s worth noting that the latest series of national projections from the Census Bureau has the share of 65+ that is non-Hispanic White dropping from about 75% in 2020 to 55% in 2060, with the share of 65+ in non-White populations increasing from under 25% to about 45% in 2060.

In closing, while this dashboard presents historical data, we do offer (in yet another dashboard) our Series 16 forecasts (adopted in Spring of 2020) by age and by county, though not by race and age by county. Check out and click on the image below to access more data that speak to the expected acceleration of the aging trends that are very evident in the data of the past two decades!