US aging, housing and moving statistics
How fast the US population is aging, whether American homes suit older residents, and how often older adults move, from three separate Census Bureau surveys.
The Census Bureau tracks how many older adults there are, whether their homes suit them, and how often they actually move, using three separate surveys. Each covers a different year and a different question.
The sections below name each survey's own data year. Read them as three separate snapshots of the same age group, not as one continuous trend.
More Americans are 65 and older, and fewer are children
Between 2023 and 2024, the US population age 65 and older rose by 3.1% to 61.2 million, while the population under 18 fell by 0.2% to 73.1 million, according to the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 Population Estimates.
The longer trend runs the same direction: the 65-and-older share of the population rose from 12.4% in 2004 to 18.0% in 2024, while the share of children fell from 25.0% to 21.5%.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Older Adults Outnumber Children in Nearly Half of U.S. Counties, June 2025
By 2024, eleven states had more older adults than children
As recently as 2020, just three states had more older adults than children: Maine, Vermont and Florida. By 2024, eight more states had joined them: Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia, bringing the total to 11.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Older Adults Outnumber Children in Nearly Half of U.S. Counties, June 2025
Are American homes ready for an aging population?
Based on 2019 American Housing Survey data, published by the Census Bureau in October 2023, about 50 million homes, 40% of US homes, had the most basic aging-ready features at that time: a step-free entry, plus a bedroom and full bathroom on the first floor.
In the same survey, about 57% of older households said their home met their accessibility needs very well, and only 6% had plans to renovate for accessibility in the near future.
About 11% of older households reported difficulty living in or using their home. That share rose to nearly 25% among households with a resident aged 85 or older.
How often do older adults actually move?
About 6.2% of adults aged 65 and over, more than 3 million people, moved during the prior year, in the Census Bureau's migration estimates for 2015 to 2019.
About 58% of those moves stayed within the same county.
Only about 19.7% of those moves, roughly 620,000 people, moved to another state annually during the 2015 to 2019 period.
Adults aged 85 and over were slightly more likely to move than those aged 65 to 74 or 75 to 84.
Reading these figures together
These come from three different Census Bureau surveys, each with its own data year: the 2024 population estimates, the 2019 American Housing Survey, and 2015 to 2019 migration estimates. They describe the same age group at different points and through different questions, not one continuous trend, so treat each figure as belonging to its own year rather than to today.
If a move because of this stage of life is what brought you here, our senior downsizing checklist and clutter and hoarding severity levels guide cover the practical side of a cleanout or move.
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