Happy Mother's Day! Women 55+ Lead Population Growth.. Again!

Women 55+ are the fastest growing population group in the country over the past 13 years!

We've added 31,300,000 people to the "civilian non-institutional population 16+" since January 2001, the month that George Bush entered the White House.  38.3% (12,000,000) of those people are women 55+, that big blue piece of pie above (compared to 37.4% of last year's increase since 2001).  Now the number of men 55+ has also gone up substantially; 38.0% (11,900,000) of those additional 31.3 million people are men 55+ (compared to 37.3% of last year's increase since 2001).  Notice the big red piece of pie.  (The "civilian non-institutional population 16+" is the base demographic used to determine employment, unemployment, and that elusive "not in the labor force" contingent.)  

No, this doesn't mean that millions of people over 55 are entering this country; it means that the huge Baby Boomer cohort, born in 1946 until about 1964, is getting older.  Expect the number of people 55+ to increase for another 5 - 10 years until the Baby Busters start to hit 55.  Now, the implications of this aging population are great:  Fewer people working, more people getting older and disabled, and more stress on our social safety net and health care systems.  

The other groups?

• Women 25-54:  1,600,000 + 
• Men 25-54:       1,500,000 +
• Women 16-24:  2,100,000 +
• Men 16-24:        2,300,000 +  

But for now, Happy Mother's Day, Moms & Grandmas 55 and over.  There are certainly a lot of us!

(And Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms and Grandmas under 55 as well!)

(This post was updated from last year.)


While we're talking about Moms and Grandmas:

(Should be:  "Past, Present or Soon-To-Be MOM".  One of these days, the people who create these photos and memes on Facebook will get the spelling and grammar right.. maybe.)  

And one of my all-time favorites: