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.

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.

U.S. life expectancy for 2025 is 79.40, a 0.18% increase from 2024.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>U.S. life expectancy for 2024 was <strong>79.25</strong>, a <strong>1.11% increase</strong> from 2023.</li>
<li>U.S. life expectancy for 2023 was <strong>78.39</strong>, a <strong>1.23% increase</strong> from 2022.</li>
<li>U.S. life expectancy for 2022 was <strong>77.43</strong>, a <strong>1.45% increase</strong> from 2021.</li>
</ul>Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.

In 2023, about 17.7 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 22.8 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 to keep up. If a population is expected to live longer than the generations before, the economy will have to change as well 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.

This statistic depicts the age distribution in the United States from 2013 to 2023. In 2023, about 17.59 percent of the U.S. population fell into the 0-14 year category, 64.97 percent into the 15-64 age group and 17.43 percent of the population were over 65 years of age. The increasing population of the United States The United States of America is one of the most populated countries in the world, trailing just behind China and India. A total population count of around 320 million inhabitants and a more-or-less steady population growth over the past decade indicate that the country has steadily improved its living conditions and standards for the population. Leading healthier lifestyles and improved living conditions have resulted in a steady increase of the life expectancy at birth in the United States. Life expectancies of men and women at birth in the United States were at a record high in 2012. Furthermore, a constant fertility rate in recent years and a decrease in the death rate and infant mortality, all due to the improved standard of living and health care conditions, have helped not only the American population to increase but as a result, the share of the population younger than 15 and older than 65 years has also increased in recent years, as can be seen above.

The typical American picture of a family with 2.5 kids might not be as relevant as it once was: In 2023, there was an average of 1.94 children under 18 per family in the United States. This is a decrease from 2.33 children under 18 per family in 1960.

Familial structure in the United States

If there’s one thing the United States is known for, it’s diversity. Whether this is diversity in ethnicity, culture, or family structure, there is something for everyone in the U.S. Two-parent households in the U.S. are declining, and the number of families with no children are increasing. The number of families with children has stayed more or less constant since 2000.

Adoptions in the U.S.

Families in the U.S. don’t necessarily consist of parents and their own biological children. In 2021, around 35,940 children were adopted by married couples, and 13,307 children were adopted by single women.

Over the past 160 years, life expectancy (from birth) in the United States has risen from 39.4 years in 1860, to 78.9 years in 2020. One of the major reasons for the overall increase of life expectancy in the last two centuries is the fact that the infant and child mortality rates have decreased by so much during this time. Medical advancements, fewer wars and improved living standards also mean that people are living longer than they did in previous centuries.

Despite this overall increase, the life expectancy dropped three times since 1860; from 1865 to 1870 during the American Civil War, from 1915 to 1920 during the First World War and following Spanish Flu epidemic, and it has dropped again between 2015 and now. The reason for the most recent drop in life expectancy is not a result of any specific event, but has been attributed to negative societal trends, such as unbalanced diets and sedentary lifestyles, high medical costs, and increasing rates of suicide and drug use.

Graph and download economic data for Real Median Personal Income in the United States (MEPAINUSA672N) from 1974 to 2023 about personal income, personal, median, income, real, and USA.

This layer was developed by the Research & Analytics Group of the Atlanta Regional Commission, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 5-year estimates for 2013-2017, to show numbers and percentages for voting age population by US Congress in the Atlanta region.

The user should note that American Community Survey data represent estimates derived from a surveyed sample of the population, which creates some level of uncertainty, as opposed to an exact measure of the entire population (the full census count is only conducted once every 10 years and does not cover as many detailed characteristics of the population). Therefore, any measure reported by ACS should not be taken as an exact number – this is why a corresponding margin of error (MOE) is also given for ACS measures. The size of the MOE relative to its corresponding estimate value provides an indication of confidence in the accuracy of each estimate. Each MOE is expressed in the same units as its corresponding measure; for example, if the estimate value is expressed as a number, then its MOE will also be a number; if the estimate value is expressed as a percent, then its MOE will also be a percent.

The user should also note that for relatively small geographic areas, such as census tracts shown here, ACS only releases combined 5-year estimates, meaning these estimates represent rolling averages of survey results that were collected over a 5-year span (in this case 2013-2017). Therefore, these data do not represent any one specific point in time or even one specific year. For geographic areas with larger populations, 3-year and 1-year estimates are also available.

For further explanation of ACS estimates and margin of error, visit Census ACS website.

Naming conventions:

Prefixes:

None

Count

p

Percent

r

Rate

m

Median

a

Mean (average)

t

Aggregate (total)

ch

Change in absolute terms (value in t2 - value in t1)

pch

Percent change ((value in t2 - value in t1) / value in t1)

chp

Change in percent (percent in t2 - percent in t1)

Suffixes:

None

Change over two periods

_e

Estimate from most recent ACS

_m

Margin of Error from most recent ACS

_00

Decennial 2000

Attributes:

SumLevel

Summary level of geographic unit (e.g., County, Tract, NSA, NPU, DSNI, SuperDistrict, etc)

GEOID

Census tract Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code

NAME

Name of geographic unit

Planning_Region

Planning region designation for ARC purposes

Acres

Total area within the tract (in acres)

SqMi

Total area within the tract (in square miles)

County

County identifier (combination of Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) codes for state and county)

CountyName

County Name

VotingAgeCitizen_e

# Citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

VotingAgeCitizen_m

# Citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

VotingAgeCitizenMale_e

# Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

VotingAgeCitizenMale_m

# Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

pVotingAgeCitizenMale_e

% Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

pVotingAgeCitizenMale_m

% Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

VotingAgeCitizenFemale_e

# Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

VotingAgeCitizenFemale_m

# Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

pVotingAgeCitizenFemale_e

% Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

pVotingAgeCitizenFemale_m

% Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

last_edited_date

Last date the feature was edited by ARC

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Atlanta Regional Commission

Date: 2013-2017

For additional information, please visit the Census ACS website.

U.S. population growth rate for 2023 was 0.49%, a 0.12% increase from 2022.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>U.S. population growth rate for 2022 was <strong>0.37%</strong>, a <strong>0.21% increase</strong> from 2021.</li>
<li>U.S. population growth rate for 2021 was <strong>0.16%</strong>, a <strong>0.81% decline</strong> from 2020.</li>
<li>U.S. population growth rate for 2020 was <strong>0.97%</strong>, a <strong>0.51% increase</strong> from 2019.</li>
</ul>Annual population growth rate for year t is the exponential rate of growth of midyear population from year t-1 to t, expressed as a percentage . Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship.

This layer was developed by the Research & Analytics Group of the Atlanta Regional Commission, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 5-year estimates for 2013-2017, to show numbers and percentages for voting age population by Regional Commission in the Atlanta region.

The user should note that American Community Survey data represent estimates derived from a surveyed sample of the population, which creates some level of uncertainty, as opposed to an exact measure of the entire population (the full census count is only conducted once every 10 years and does not cover as many detailed characteristics of the population). Therefore, any measure reported by ACS should not be taken as an exact number – this is why a corresponding margin of error (MOE) is also given for ACS measures. The size of the MOE relative to its corresponding estimate value provides an indication of confidence in the accuracy of each estimate. Each MOE is expressed in the same units as its corresponding measure; for example, if the estimate value is expressed as a number, then its MOE will also be a number; if the estimate value is expressed as a percent, then its MOE will also be a percent.

The user should also note that for relatively small geographic areas, such as census tracts shown here, ACS only releases combined 5-year estimates, meaning these estimates represent rolling averages of survey results that were collected over a 5-year span (in this case 2013-2017). Therefore, these data do not represent any one specific point in time or even one specific year. For geographic areas with larger populations, 3-year and 1-year estimates are also available.

For further explanation of ACS estimates and margin of error, visit Census ACS website.

Naming conventions:

Prefixes:

None

Count

p

Percent

r

Rate

m

Median

a

Mean (average)

t

Aggregate (total)

ch

Change in absolute terms (value in t2 - value in t1)

pch

Percent change ((value in t2 - value in t1) / value in t1)

chp

Change in percent (percent in t2 - percent in t1)

Suffixes:

None

Change over two periods

_e

Estimate from most recent ACS

_m

Margin of Error from most recent ACS

_00

Decennial 2000

Attributes:

SumLevel

Summary level of geographic unit (e.g., County, Tract, NSA, NPU, DSNI, SuperDistrict, etc)

GEOID

Census tract Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code

NAME

Name of geographic unit

Planning_Region

Planning region designation for ARC purposes

Acres

Total area within the tract (in acres)

SqMi

Total area within the tract (in square miles)

County

County identifier (combination of Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) codes for state and county)

CountyName

County Name

VotingAgeCitizen_e

# Citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

VotingAgeCitizen_m

# Citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

VotingAgeCitizenMale_e

# Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

VotingAgeCitizenMale_m

# Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

pVotingAgeCitizenMale_e

% Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

pVotingAgeCitizenMale_m

% Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

VotingAgeCitizenFemale_e

# Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

VotingAgeCitizenFemale_m

# Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

pVotingAgeCitizenFemale_e

% Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

pVotingAgeCitizenFemale_m

% Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

last_edited_date

Last date the feature was edited by ARC

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Atlanta Regional Commission

Date: 2013-2017

For additional information, please visit the Census ACS website.

This layer was developed by the Research & Analytics Group of the Atlanta Regional Commission, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 5-year estimates for 2013-2017, to show numbers and percentages for voting age population by Westside Future Fund in the Atlanta region.

The user should note that American Community Survey data represent estimates derived from a surveyed sample of the population, which creates some level of uncertainty, as opposed to an exact measure of the entire population (the full census count is only conducted once every 10 years and does not cover as many detailed characteristics of the population). Therefore, any measure reported by ACS should not be taken as an exact number – this is why a corresponding margin of error (MOE) is also given for ACS measures. The size of the MOE relative to its corresponding estimate value provides an indication of confidence in the accuracy of each estimate. Each MOE is expressed in the same units as its corresponding measure; for example, if the estimate value is expressed as a number, then its MOE will also be a number; if the estimate value is expressed as a percent, then its MOE will also be a percent.

The user should also note that for relatively small geographic areas, such as census tracts shown here, ACS only releases combined 5-year estimates, meaning these estimates represent rolling averages of survey results that were collected over a 5-year span (in this case 2013-2017). Therefore, these data do not represent any one specific point in time or even one specific year. For geographic areas with larger populations, 3-year and 1-year estimates are also available.

For further explanation of ACS estimates and margin of error, visit Census ACS website.

Naming conventions:

Prefixes:

None

Count

p

Percent

r

Rate

m

Median

a

Mean (average)

t

Aggregate (total)

ch

Change in absolute terms (value in t2 - value in t1)

pch

Percent change ((value in t2 - value in t1) / value in t1)

chp

Change in percent (percent in t2 - percent in t1)

Suffixes:

None

Change over two periods

_e

Estimate from most recent ACS

_m

Margin of Error from most recent ACS

_00

Decennial 2000

Attributes:

SumLevel

Summary level of geographic unit (e.g., County, Tract, NSA, NPU, DSNI, SuperDistrict, etc)

GEOID

Census tract Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code

NAME

Name of geographic unit

Planning_Region

Planning region designation for ARC purposes

Acres

Total area within the tract (in acres)

SqMi

Total area within the tract (in square miles)

County

County identifier (combination of Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) codes for state and county)

CountyName

County Name

VotingAgeCitizen_e

# Citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

VotingAgeCitizen_m

# Citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

VotingAgeCitizenMale_e

# Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

VotingAgeCitizenMale_m

# Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

pVotingAgeCitizenMale_e

% Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

pVotingAgeCitizenMale_m

% Male citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

VotingAgeCitizenFemale_e

# Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

VotingAgeCitizenFemale_m

# Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

pVotingAgeCitizenFemale_e

% Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017

pVotingAgeCitizenFemale_m

% Female citizen, 18 and over population, 2017 (MOE)

last_edited_date

Last date the feature was edited by ARC

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Atlanta Regional Commission

Date: 2013-2017

For additional information, please visit the Census ACS website.

Total current population for the United States in 2025 is 343,603,404, a 0.52% increase from 2024.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>Total population for the United States in 2024 was <strong>341,814,420</strong>, a <strong>2.06% increase</strong> from 2023.</li>
<li>Total population for the United States in 2023 was <strong>334,914,895</strong>, a <strong>0.49% increase</strong> from 2022.</li>
<li>Total population for the United States in 2022 was <strong>333,271,411</strong>, a <strong>0.37% increase</strong> from 2021.</li>
</ul>Total population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship. The values shown are midyear estimates.

Graph and download economic data for Personal Saving Rate (PSAVERT) from Jan 1959 to Apr 2025 about savings, personal, rate, and USA.

Millennials were the largest generation group in the United States in 2024, with an estimated population of ***** million. Born between 1981 and 1996, Millennials recently surpassed Baby Boomers as the biggest group, and they will continue to be a major part of the population for many years. The rise of Generation Alpha Generation Alpha is the most recent to have been named, and many group members will not be able to remember a time before smartphones and social media. As of 2024, the oldest Generation Alpha members were still only aging into adolescents. However, the group already makes up around ***** percent of the U.S. population, and they are said to be the most racially and ethnically diverse of all the generation groups. Boomers vs. Millennials The number of Baby Boomers, whose generation was defined by the boom in births following the Second World War, has fallen by around ***** million since 2010. However, they remain the second-largest generation group, and aging Boomers are contributing to steady increases in the median age of the population. Meanwhile, the Millennial generation continues to grow, and one reason for this is the increasing number of young immigrants arriving in the United States.

In terms of population size, the sex ratio in the United States favors females, although the gender gap is remaining stable. In 2010, there were around 5.17 million more women, with the difference projected to decrease to around 3 million by 2027.

Gender ratios by U.S. state In the United States, the resident population was estimated to be around 331.89 million in 2021. The gender distribution of the nation has remained steady for several years, with women accounting for approximately 51.1 percent of the population since 2013. Females outnumbered males in the majority of states across the country in 2020, and there were eleven states where the gender ratio favored men.

Metro areas by population National differences between male and female populations can also be analyzed by metropolitan areas. In general, a metropolitan area is a region with a main city at its center and adjacent communities that are all connected by social and economic factors. The largest metro areas in the U.S. are New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. In 2019, there were more women than men in all three of those areas, but Jackson, Missouri was the metro area with the highest share of female population.

In 2022, 77.9 percent of people aged between 65 and 74 years old were registered to vote in the United States - the highest share of any age group. In comparison, 49.1 percent of 18 to 24 year-olds were registered to vote in that year.

The life expectancy of men at birth in the United States saw no significant changes in 2023 in comparison to the previous year 2022 and remained at around 75.8 years. However, 2023 marked the second consecutive increase of the life expectancy. Life expectancy at birth refers to the number of years the average newborn is expected to live, providing that mortality patterns at the time of birth do not change thereafter.Find more statistics on other topics about the United States with key insights such as total fertility rate, infant mortality rate, and total life expectancy at birth.

Since 1789, 45 different men have served as President of the United States, and the average age of these men when taking office for the first time was approximately 57 years. Two men, Grover Cleveland and Donald Trump, were elected to two non-consecutive terms, and Donald Trump's victory in 2024 made him the oldest man ever elected as president, where he will be 78 years and seven months old when taking office again. Record holders The oldest president to take office for the first time was Joe Biden in 2021, at 78 years and two months - around five months younger than Donald Trump when he assumes office in 2025. The youngest presidents to take office were Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 (42 years and 322 days), who assumed office following the assassination of William McKinley, and the youngest elected president was John F Kennedy in 1961 (43 years and 236 days). Historically, there seems to be little correlation between age and electability, and the past five presidents have included the two oldest to ever take office, and two of the youngest. Requirements to become president The United States Constitution states that both the President and Vice President must be at least 35 years old when taking office, and must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years of their life. Such restrictions are also in place for members of the U.S. Congress, although the age and residency barriers are lower. Additionally, for the roles of President and Vice President, there is a "natural-born-citizen" clause that was traditionally interpreted to mean candidates must have been born in the U.S. (or were citizens when the Constitution was adopted). However, the clause's ambiguity has led to something of a reinterpretation in the past decades, with most now interpreting it as also applying to those eligible for birthright citizenship, as some recent candidates were born overseas.

In the United States in 2021, the death rate was highest among those aged 85 and over, with about 17,190.5 men and 14,914.5 women per 100,000 of the population passing away. For all ages, the death rate was at 1,118.2 per 100,000 of the population for males, and 970.8 per 100,000 of the population for women. The death rate Death rates generally are counted as the number of deaths per 1,000 or 100,000 of the population and include both deaths of natural and unnatural causes. The death rate in the United States had pretty much held steady since 1990 until it started to increase over the last decade, with the highest death rates recorded in recent years. While the birth rate in the United States has been decreasing, it is still currently higher than the death rate. Causes of death There are a myriad number of causes of death in the United States, but the most recent data shows the top three leading causes of death to be heart disease, cancers, and accidents. Heart disease was also the leading cause of death worldwide.