Newsweek, June 2025
The number of states where older adults outnumber children has increased in recent years, according to new data from the Vintage 2024 Population Estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2024, there were a total of 11 states where older adults outnumbered children, up from just three in 2020.
Why It Matters
A falling birth rate, and aging population, are causing concern. People’s decisions around having children reflect wider anxieties about the economy, given the expense required to have and raise children, as well as social changes, as couples are choosing to have smaller families or have children later.
As a result, the issue has been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s political agenda—with President Donald Trump giving women a “baby bonus” of $5,000 to encourage them to have more children, expanding access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) for Americans, and the Department of Transportation being directed to give precedence to “communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.”
