Pennsylvania remains third 'oldest' state
In the race among granny states, Pennsylvania has cemented its place as third oldest in the nation, according to new census data.
In the race among granny states, Pennsylvania has cemented its place as third oldest in the nation, according to new census data.
The flip-flop when the Keystone State first dropped from second place went largely unnoticed. During the election last year, national news reports continued to refer to Pennsylvania as second oldest, citing the 2000 census.
But for the fifth year in a row, about 15 percent of Pennsylvania's population was 65 or older last year, behind Florida's 17 percent and West Virginia's nearly 16 percent, population estimates released last week show.
Florida has been the oldest state practically as long as its early-bird specials have been around.
"I don't look at the rankings," said Ray Prushnok, Pennsylvania's acting deputy secretary of aging. Instead, he's focused on the number of 85-and-older folks in the system - a number that has grown 30 percent since 2000.
"Pennsylvania got old first," he said. "We have this large population of 85 and over now. . . . We're experiencing the aging trends decades before a lot of other states."
Does the fall to third allow the commonwealth to kick up its heels with a measure of youthful abandon? After all, West Virginia's proportion of 65-plus has been rising since 2004, while Pennsylvania's has sagged.
Not so fast, sonny.
"Our median age is still going up," said Sue Copella, director of the Pennsylvania State Data Center. It is 41.5 years, compared with 39.4 in 2000.
Besides, while the proportion of 65 and older in the state dropped slightly for a couple of years, it bottomed out in 2006 at 15.2 percent. It crept up to 15.4 percent last year.
The graying of West Virginia can be attributed to its largely white population, which tends to have a lower birth rate, and the "out migration" of younger residents leaving for jobs, said Christiadi, a demographer with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University. (He uses only one name.)
"We're stuck with the old people," he said.
Aging baby boomers will keep Pennsylvania gray as well.
It may even give the state the edge it needs to regain the red ribbon.
"I could see us doing that," said Copella.
