White baby boomers lead the way to an older population in
White baby boomers lead the way to an older population in Forsyth
By Wesley Young
Published: July 03, 2011
Whites in Forsyth County are getting older faster than blacks, and Hispanics keep getting younger.
The 2010 census results show that the faces of Forsyth County are changing, and in many cases, growing older. The median age for non-Hispanic whites has now reached 43.7 years in Forsyth County, much higher than the median age for blacks or Hispanics. It's now even older than the traditional child-bearing age.
"It's a demographic tsunami," said Keith Debbage, a geography professor at UNC Greensboro. The huge changes can cause upheaval and problems, he said. The county will have an increasingly large number of retirees at the same time that it has a growing population of youthful immigrants with less education, he said.
"It is important that our community colleges have the kinds of programs that allow immigrant labor to transition as quickly as possible" to higher-skilled jobs, Debbage said. The higher-paying jobs are needed to bring more money into the Social Security system, he said.
The more detailed statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, released Thursday, show that 40 percent of children younger than 1 are non-Hispanic whites.
The data show the advancing age of the predominantly white baby boomer population, one that is set to change the face of old age, even as the well-documented growth of Hispanics has changed the makeup of the younger population.
"It is almost a tale of two cities," Debbage said. "What you are seeing is the in-migration of young immigrant labor, which is driving down that median age. With the white population, a lot of our predominantly white, college-educated talent is aging."
And whites have had lower birth rates, largely because of the high costs of educating the next generation, he added.
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Including all groups, the county's median age went up from 36 in 2000 to 37.2 in 2010. That doesn't seem like much of an increase, but it masks the great differences between ethnic groups.
In fact, the median age for Hispanics went down between 2000 and 2010.
The median age for whites went up by almost four years over the decade, and by slightly more than two years among blacks — from 31.1 years old in 2000 to 33.3 years in 2010. The Hispanic median age dropped from 23.9 to 23.3. The median age is the age at which half the people are older and half are younger.
During the decade, Forsyth County experienced a 43 percent increase in the number of people aged 60 to 69, and a 35 percent increase in the number of people aged 50 to 59. The approach of these aging residents to retirement has Debbage scared.
Evidence of an aging population abounds in the data from the 2010 census. The count showed that 33 percent of the households in Forsyth County have someone living there who is 60 or older. The 2000 figure was 28 percent.
The vast majority of the older people in the county are white; they make up about 75 percent of the people who are 65 years old. Whites make up 59 percent of Forsyth County's total population, with blacks totaling 26 percent, according to the 2010 census. Hispanics make up 12 percent of the total.
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Peter Uhlenberg, a sociology professor at UNC Chapel Hill, sees potential for conflict as the composition of society changes.
"The support of the older population is the largest expenditure of the federal government," Uhlenberg said. "Increasingly, those paying the taxes are nonwhites supporting the older white part of the population. That has fortunately not become politicized, but it could be."
On the other hand, Uhlenberg said, older people can make contributions and shouldn't be seen as "a burden and cost … an unfortunate way of viewing old age."
"The highest priority should be recognizing the potential contributions of older people and to rethink old age as a time where people make important contributions to the community," he said. For example, "the older population could tutor these children of immigrants and help them be more productive in the future."
Richard Gottlieb, president of Senior Services in Winston-Salem, said baby boomers passing into old age will present "a lot of opportunities as well as challenges" to the system of helping older people.
What Gottlieb has been learning is that the baby boomer generation is financially ill-prepared for retirement.
"We are constantly trying to prepare for the growing number of seniors," Gottlieb said. "We have been trying to establish and maintain a safety net to keep frail seniors at home as long as possible."
Money is tight, Gottlieb said, noting a $180,000 cut his agency received in federal and state money for adult day services.
"You have a growing older-adult population and there are diminishing resources to care for people in the community," he said. "The added years are an opportunity to work longer and volunteer and be part of the solution, but as we age our chances of having a health problem increases."
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