Michigan's Population Continues to Age Faster than the Nation

Michigan’s Population Continues to Age Faster than the Nation

(Kurt Metzger, July 7, 2025)

Michigan – The U.S. population age 65 and older rose by 3.1 percent (to 61.2 million) while the population under age 18 decreased by 0.2 percent (to 73.1 million) from 2023 to 2024, according to the 2024 population estimates released June 26 by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Michigan followed a similar path, with its 65 and over population rising 3.0 percent (up 57,809) and its under 18 population decreasing by 0.6 percent (down 12,603).

Children now represent 20.8 percent of Michigan’s population, while seniors have reached 19.6 percent.

“Children still outnumber older adults in the United States, despite a decline in births this decade,” said Lauren Bowers, chief of the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Branch. “However, the gap is narrowing as baby boomers continue to age into their retirement years. In fact, the number of states and counties where older adults outnumber children is on the rise, especially in sparsely populated areas.”

As recently as 2020, there were just three states where older adults outnumbered children: Maine, Vermont, and Florida. By 2024, this number had increased to 11, with Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia joining their ranks.

If the change we have seen between 2020 and 2024 holds, Michigan should be joining this group by 2026. A fact that supports this forecast is that Michigan women 65 years and over already surpassed female youth in 2023. In 2024, they accounted for 21.1 percent of females, while female youth accounted for 20.1 percent.

On the male side, the shares were 18.1 and 20.5 percent, respectively.

In 2020, 31.3% (or 983) of the nation’s 3,144 counties had more older adults than children. This figure increased to almost 45% (1,411 counties) in 2024. In both years, most of these counties had small populations and were located outside of metro and micro areas.

Michigan saw its ranks of counties with more older adults than children grow from 43 in 2020 to 59 (71 percent) in 2024!

In 2024, the U.S. median age reached a new record high of 39.1, up 0.1 years from 2023, and up 0.6 years from 38.5 in 2020. Michigan’s median age rose to 40.4 years, up from 40.3 in 2023 and 39.9 in 2020.

I have provided 2 charts to illustrate Michigan’s age structure. The first looks at 2020-24 percent change by 5-year age cohort. The second provides a population pyramid that shows the age distribution by gender.