Agenda - 06-26-2003-5A - Laserfiche WebLink

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9 family members for longer period of time than they will care for their own children (under 18 years of age)! This will be exacerbated as the Baby Boomers age to due fewer family caregivers with responsibility for more elderly adults. In the United States, comparing the turn of the century year 1900 to 2000: • The 65+ age group is 3 times larger. • The 65-74 age group (18.4 million) is eight times larger, • The 75-84 age group (12.4 million) is 16 times larger, and • The 85+ age group is 34 times larger. (AoA, Ref #2) As illustrated in Table 1, in the year 2000 the older population (65+) now numbers 35 million. By the year 2030, the older population will more than double to about 70 million. The 85+ population will see an even more dramatic increase from 4.2 million in 2000 to 8.9 million in 2030. (AoA, Ref #3) Table 1 also demonstrates how the "age wave" will be at high tide in the year 2030 when all Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) will reach 65 years of age. The 65+ population in 2030 will represent 20% of the U.S. population compared to 12.4% in 2000. The ratio of older adults to the rest of the population will increase from 1 to 8 to 1 to 5. (AoA, Ref #4) By 2030 the state of North Carolina will have nearly 18% of its population over age 65, which is a higher percentage than the state of Florida's current 17.6% 65+ population. (AoA, Ref #4) In 2000 the state of North Carolina had almost one million (969,048) older persons 65+, representing 12% of the total population. The state's 65+ population showed a dramatic increase of 20.5% between 1990 and the 2000 Census (Table 1). Thirteen other states also had increases of 20% or more for the decade. (AoA, Ref #5) The growth in numbers of older adults in Orange County is expected to outpace similar growth for the nation as a whole, as well as that of North Carolina. Orange County's 65+ population is expected to grow from 10,744 persons in the year 2000 to 23,840 by 2020 (Table 1). This is an increase of 122% over the 2000 total, versus an anticipated total county population increase of only 40.5% for the same period.