As a close-out to  Older Americans Month, and as an add-on to our recent Aging Snapshot, we take a look at the growing age diversity of our foreign-born population. The popular perception may be that our immigrant population is working-age and younger. This was true in the 1990s, as that foreign-born population began to grow quickly in our area. But in recent decades, the share of older adults who were born outside the U.S. has begun to increase at rates, and to percentages, that only slightly lag those of the overall population.

In the 10-county Atlanta region, approximately 15.32% of older adults age 60 or older were born in another country {American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates, 2016-2020}. This share has steadily increased over the course of the 14 years covered by the 2001-2006 through the 2016-2020 ACS products. In 2006-2010 ACS period, only 11.90% of older adults in the Atlanta region were immigrants. The 2011-2015 5-Year ACS reported that 13.43% of the foreign-born were 60 years of age and over.

The 2016-2020 ACS most recent estimates, mapped in Figure 1 below, show that Gwinnett County currently has the highest percentage of foreign born seniors. Over 1 in 4 older adults 60+ living there were born abroad (compared to 15% 60+ foreign-born across the 10 counties).

The types of aging information and resources needed by older adults in the 10-county Atlanta region must be as diverse as their countries of origin. For this reason, ARC’s Empowerline partners with organizations like the Center for Pan Asian Community Services and the Latin American Association to provide culturally appropriate information & referral services. In 2021 alone, these partnerships provided critical information to 2,260 older adult immigrants.