This statistic depicts the median age of the global labor force from 1990 to 2025. In 2019, the median age of the global workforce was 38.9 years. In 2025, this figure is expected to increase to 39.6 years.

In 2022, the employment rate of the workforce of 55 years and older increased to 41.1 percent. Employment rate among young adults (age 16-24) was at 41.5 percent in 2022. For monthly updates on employment in the United States visit the annual national employment rate here.

Graph and download economic data for Infra-Annual Labor Statistics: Working-Age Population Total: From 15 to 64 Years for United States (LFWA64TTUSM647S) from Jan 1977 to Feb 2025 about working-age, 15 to 64 years, population, and USA.

In 2022, the state with the highest median age of its population was Maine at 45.1 years. Utah had the lowest median age at 32.1 years. View the distribution of the U.S. population by ethnicity here.

Additional information on the aging population in the United States

High birth rates during the so-called baby boom years that followed World War II followed by lower fertility and morality rates have left the United States with a serious challenge in the 21st Century. However, the issue of an aging population is certainly not an issue unique to the United States. The age distribution of the global population shows that other parts of the world face a similar issue.

Within the United States, the uneven distribution of populations aged 65 years and over among states offers both major challenges and potential solutions. On the one hand, federal action over the issue may be contentious as other states are set to harbor the costs of elderly care in states such as California and Florida. That said, domestic migration from comparably younger states may help to fill gaps in the workforce left by retirees in others.

Nonetheless, aging population issues are set to gain further prominence in the political and economic decisions made by policymakers regardless of the eventual distribution of America’s elderly. Analysis of the financial concerns of Americans by age shows many young people still decades from retirement hold strong concern over their eventual financial position.

This layer shows full-time, year-round vs. part-time employment by age. This is shown by tract, county, and state boundaries. This service is updated annually to contain the most currently released American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year data, and contains estimates and margins of error. There are also additional calculated attributes related to this topic, which can be mapped or used within analysis. This layer is symbolized to show the percent of population age 65+ who worked in the past 12 months. To see the full list of attributes available in this service, go to the "Data" tab, and choose "Fields" at the top right. Current Vintage: 2019-2023ACS Table(s): B23027 Data downloaded from: Census Bureau's API for American Community Survey Date of API call: December 12, 2024National Figures: data.census.govThe United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS):About the SurveyGeography & ACSTechnical DocumentationNews & UpdatesThis ready-to-use layer can be used within ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, its configurable apps, dashboards, Story Maps, custom apps, and mobile apps. Data can also be exported for offline workflows. For more information about ACS layers, visit the FAQ. Please cite the Census and ACS when using this data.Data Note from the Census:Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. The degree of uncertainty for an estimate arising from sampling variability is represented through the use of a margin of error. The value shown here is the 90 percent margin of error. The margin of error can be interpreted as providing a 90 percent probability that the interval defined by the estimate minus the margin of error and the estimate plus the margin of error (the lower and upper confidence bounds) contains the true value. In addition to sampling variability, the ACS estimates are subject to nonsampling error (for a discussion of nonsampling variability, see Accuracy of the Data). The effect of nonsampling error is not represented in these tables.Data Processing Notes:This layer is updated automatically when the most current vintage of ACS data is released each year, usually in December. The layer always contains the latest available ACS 5-year estimates. It is updated annually within days of the Census Bureau's release schedule. Click here to learn more about ACS data releases.Boundaries come from the US Census TIGER geodatabases, specifically, the National Sub-State Geography Database (named tlgdb_(year)_a_us_substategeo.gdb). Boundaries are updated at the same time as the data updates (annually), and the boundary vintage appropriately matches the data vintage as specified by the Census. These are Census boundaries with water and/or coastlines erased for cartographic and mapping purposes. For census tracts, the water cutouts are derived from a subset of the 2020 Areal Hydrography boundaries offered by TIGER. Water bodies and rivers which are 50 million square meters or larger (mid to large sized water bodies) are erased from the tract level boundaries, as well as additional important features. For state and county boundaries, the water and coastlines are derived from the coastlines of the 2023 500k TIGER Cartographic Boundary Shapefiles. These are erased to more accurately portray the coastlines and Great Lakes. The original AWATER and ALAND fields are still available as attributes within the data table (units are square meters).The States layer contains 52 records - all US states, Washington D.C., and Puerto RicoCensus tracts with no population that occur in areas of water, such as oceans, are removed from this data service (Census Tracts beginning with 99).Percentages and derived counts, and associated margins of error, are calculated values (that can be identified by the "_calc_" stub in the field name), and abide by the specifications defined by the American Community Survey.Field alias names were created based on the Table Shells file available from the American Community Survey Summary File Documentation page.Negative values (e.g., -555555...) have been set to null. These negative values exist in the raw API data to indicate the following situations:The margin of error column indicates that either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute a standard error and thus the margin of error. A statistical test is not appropriate.Either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute an estimate, or a ratio of medians cannot be calculated because one or both of the median estimates falls in the lowest interval or upper interval of an open-ended distribution.The median falls in the lowest interval of an open-ended distribution, or in the upper interval of an open-ended distribution. A statistical test is not appropriate.The estimate is controlled. A statistical test for sampling variability is not appropriate.The data for this geographic area cannot be displayed because the number of sample cases is too small. NOTE: any calculated percentages or counts that contain estimates that have null margins of error yield null margins of error for the calculated fields.

In 2023, the median age of the population of the United States was 39.2 years. While this may seem quite young, the median age in 1960 was even younger, at 29.5 years. The aging population in the United States means that society is going to have to find a way to adapt to the larger numbers of older people. Everything from Social Security to employment to the age of retirement will have to change if the population is expected to age more while having fewer children. The world is getting older It’s not only the United States that is facing this particular demographic dilemma. In 1950, the global median age was 23.6 years. This number is projected to increase to 41.9 years by the year 2100. This means that not only the U.S., but the rest of the world will also have to find ways to adapt to the aging population.

Graph and download economic data for Labor Force Participation Rate - Women (LNS11300002) from Jan 1948 to Feb 2025 about females, participation, 16 years +, labor force, labor, household survey, rate, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Infra-Annual Labor Statistics: Working-Age Population Total: From 15 to 64 Years for Japan (LFWA64TTJPM647S) from Jan 1970 to Jan 2025 about working-age, 15 to 64 years, Japan, and population.

This dataset contains Iowa median age of Iowa Workers ages 16 to 64 years old by sex for State of Iowa, individual Iowa counties, Iowa places and census tracts within Iowa. Data is from the American Community Survey, Five Year Estimates, Table B23013.

Sex includes the following: Total, Male, Female.

This table contains 28215 series, with data for years 1987 - 2014 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years). This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (11 items: Newfoundland and Labrador; Prince Edward Island; Nova Scotia; Canada ...), Days lost (5 items: Total; days lost (including maternity leave);Own illness or disability; Other personal (including maternity leave);Total; days lost (excluding maternity leave) ...), North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) (19 items: Total; all industries; Forestry; fishing; mining; quarrying; oil and gas; Agriculture; Goods-producing sector ...), Sex (3 items: Both sexes; Females; Males ...), Age group (9 items: 15 years and over;25 to 44 years;15 to 24 years;25 years and over ...).

Statewide VA data on the demographic and economic characteristics of the labor force are published on an annual-average basis from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the sample survey of households used to calculate the U.S. unemployment rate. For VA state ,employment status data are tabulated for 67 sex, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, marital status, and detailed age categories and evaluated against a minimum base, calculated to reflect an expected maximum coefficient of variation (CV) of 50 percent, to determine reliability for publication

In 2022, over a third of the home care workers workforce are over 55 years or older, which is the age group gearing for retirement. This forecasts a need of home care workers in the coming years.

In 2023, it was estimated that over 161 million Americans were in some form of employment, while 3.64 percent of the total workforce was unemployed. This was the lowest unemployment rate since the 1950s, although these figures are expected to rise in 2023 and beyond. 1980s-2010s Since the 1980s, the total United States labor force has generally risen as the population has grown, however, the annual average unemployment rate has fluctuated significantly, usually increasing in times of crisis, before falling more slowly during periods of recovery and economic stability. For example, unemployment peaked at 9.7 percent during the early 1980s recession, which was largely caused by the ripple effects of the Iranian Revolution on global oil prices and inflation. Other notable spikes came during the early 1990s; again, largely due to inflation caused by another oil shock, and during the early 2000s recession. The Great Recession then saw the U.S. unemployment rate soar to 9.6 percent, following the collapse of the U.S. housing market and its impact on the banking sector, and it was not until 2016 that unemployment returned to pre-recession levels. 2020s 2019 had marked a decade-long low in unemployment, before the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic saw the sharpest year-on-year increase in unemployment since the Great Depression, and the total number of workers fell by almost 10 million people. Despite the continuation of the pandemic in the years that followed, alongside the associated supply-chain issues and onset of the inflation crisis, unemployment reached just 3.67 percent in 2022 - current projections are for this figure to rise in 2023 and the years that follow, although these forecasts are subject to change if recent years are anything to go by.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate - 16-24 Yrs. (LNS14024887) from Jan 1948 to Feb 2025 about 16 to 24 years, unemployment, rate, and USA.

In 2022, about 17.3 percent of the American population was 65 years old or over; an increase from the last few years and a figure which is expected to reach 22 percent by 2050. This is a significant increase from 1950, when only eight percent of the population was 65 or over.

A rapidly aging population

In recent years, the aging population of the United States has come into focus as a cause for concern, as the nature of work and retirement is expected to change in order to keep up. If a population is expected to live longer than the generations before, the economy will have to change as well in order to fulfill the needs of the citizens. In addition, the birth rate in the U.S. has been falling over the last 20 years, meaning that there are not as many young people to replace the individuals leaving the workforce.

The future population

It’s not only the American population that is aging -- the global population is, too. By 2025, the median age of the global workforce is expected to be 39.6 years, up from 33.8 years in 1990. Additionally, it is projected that there will be over three million people worldwide aged 100 years and over by 2050.

Although the American Community Survey (ACS) produces population, demographic and housing unit estimates, it is the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program that produces and disseminates the official estimates of the population for the nation, states, counties, cities, and towns and estimates of housing units for states and counties..Supporting documentation on code lists, subject definitions, data accuracy, and statistical testing can be found on the American Community Survey website in the .Technical Documentation.. section......Sample size and data quality measures (including coverage rates, allocation rates, and response rates) can be found on the American Community Survey website in the .Methodology.. section..Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates.Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. The degree of uncertainty for an estimate arising from sampling variability is represented through the use of a margin of error. The value shown here is the 90 percent margin of error. The margin of error can be interpreted roughly as providing a 90 percent probability that the interval defined by the estimate minus the margin of error and the estimate plus the margin of error (the lower and upper confidence bounds) contains the true value. In addition to sampling variability, the ACS estimates are subject to nonsampling error (for a discussion of nonsampling variability, see .ACS Technical Documentation..). The effect of nonsampling error is not represented in these tables..Employment and unemployment estimates may vary from the official labor force data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics because of differences in survey design and data collection. For guidance on differences in employment and unemployment estimates from different sources go to .Labor Force Guidance....While the 2018 American Community Survey (ACS) data generally reflect the July 2015 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) delineations of metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, in certain instances the names, codes, and boundaries of the principal cities shown in ACS tables may differ from the OMB delineations due to differences in the effective dates of the geographic entities..Estimates of urban and rural populations, housing units, and characteristics reflect boundaries of urban areas defined based on Census 2010 data. As a result, data for urban and rural areas from the ACS do not necessarily reflect the results of ongoing urbanization..Explanation of Symbols:..An "**" entry in the margin of error column indicates that either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute a standard error and thus the margin of error. A statistical test is not appropriate..An "-" entry in the estimate column indicates that either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute an estimate, or a ratio of medians cannot be calculated because one or both of the median estimates falls in the lowest interval or upper interval of an open-ended distribution, or the margin of error associated with a median was larger than the median itself..An "-" following a median estimate means the median falls in the lowest interval of an open-ended distribution..An "+" following a median estimate means the median falls in the upper interval of an open-ended distribution..An "***" entry in the margin of error column indicates that the median falls in the lowest interval or upper interval of an open-ended distribution. A statistical test is not appropriate..An "*****" entry in the margin of error column indicates that the estimate is controlled. A statistical test for sampling variability is not appropriate. .An "N" entry in the estimate and margin of error columns indicates that data for this geographic area cannot be displayed because the number of sample cases is too small..An "(X)" means that the estimate is not applicable or not available....

In the United States, the average age of a registered nurse was 43.6 years old. The average age of male registered nurses was 42.2, lower compared to 43.7 years for female registered nurses. With a total of 439,917 nurses, most registered nurses were part of the 30 to 34 years old age group in 2021. There were even 714 registered nurses aged 85 to 88 years old.

In 2023, about 63.1 percent of the Asian community was employed. The highest employment rate was found among Mexican-Americans, at 64 percent, and the lowest employment rate was found among Puerto Ricans, at 57.3 percent. In total, around 60 percent of all working-age Americans were employed at this time.

In October 2024, the average working week for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls in the United States was at 34.3 hours. This includes part-time workers. The data have been seasonally adjusted. Employed persons consist of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls. U.S. working week As in most industrialized countries, the standard work week in the United States begins on Monday and ends on Friday. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average workweek for all employees (including part-time) working in private industries in the United States amounted to about 34.5 hours in 2022. Over the course of one month, the U.S. workforce works about 3.9 billion hours in total.The average work week can differ heavily from industry to industry. An employee in the mining and logging industry worked about 45.5 hours a week in April 2023, while employees in private education and health services worked for an average of 33.4 hours per week.

In 2023, the U.S. employment rate stood at 60.3 percent. Employed persons consist of: persons who did any work for pay or profit during the survey reference week; persons who did at least 15 hours of unpaid work in a family-operated enterprise; and persons who were temporarily absent from their regular jobs because of illness, vacation, bad weather, industrial dispute, or various personal reasons. The employment-population ratio represents the proportion of the civilian non-institutional population that is employed. The monthly unemployment rate for the United States can be found here.