Census Bureau: “New York City is Rapidly Graying”
This is not, of course, really big news. We’ve been hearing about the impending surge of gray hairs for a while now. But the wording is just a touch insensitive for an official census report, no? Well the numbers speak for themselves.
The report boasts, in strict bullet point fashion, several pearls of aging trends. What the report calls “older people” (over 60) have increased 12.4 % compared with what I guess we can call younger people (under 60), at 0.2%. “Moreover,” they write, “there has been a dramatic increase in the young elderly.” Hmm… Who’s writing this thing? At any rate, the “the first cohort of the baby-boomers” has arrived. And they’re here in Brooklyn. Nearly a third of the city’s seniors reside in the hippest bureau, with another 30% in Queens.
The report also shows that although there are still more older women overall, the gap between the sexes in their twilight years is closing. In other words, men are living longer, catching up with their wives and sisters.
The increasing number of old folks will have implications for the whole city, of course. In an article on this report, the New York Times lists the potential pitfalls for the elderly, including subway stairs, city budgets, rent hikes with a fixed income crowd, and cars and “heedless cyclists” turning into the crosswalks.
Jeez guys, way to scare people. Despite the migrations of young people to Brooklyn, the borough’s getting older. It just happens. One day at a time.
