A recent report from the Dayton Daily News details how Ohio is aging. Reporter Cory Frolik found older adults outnumber children in more than 1 in 4 Ohio counties.
Frolik spoke with WYSO's Jerry Kinney to discuss his reporting and what's driving the trends.
This interview transcript is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Cory Frolik: Census data shows that the U.S. has something like 3,100 counties, and in nearly half of those, I think it's like 45%, there are now more people who are 65 and older than there are children, which is people under the age of 18.
Ohio has 88 counties, and in 25 of those, there are more seniors than kids. Across the country, you're mostly seeing this apparently in counties that are more rural, like ones that aren't home to major urban areas. Those tend to see more of a change, and a shift in the balance of older folks to younger folks.
That's certainly true in Ohio, a lot of the counties that have more seniors than kids are rural in nature, but not entirely. I mean, Cuyahoga County, which is home to Cleveland, Stark County, home to Canton, and Summit County, home to Akron, all now have more people 65 and older than they do residents under the age of 18.
In this region, the Dayton region, which me and my paper consider the Miami Valley region as Butler County, Champaign County, Clark, Green, Miami, Montgomery, and Warren counties, none of those counties have more seniors than kids but some of them are getting very close to that point and certainly we're seeing growth in the senior population.
And why is this happening? So I talked to some people about this, including people from the AARP, and they say there's a couple things going on, which is people are living longer, they're living healthier lives, you know, medical care has gotten a lot better, of course.
Even though life expectancy fell during the COVID crisis, in general, it's been on the rise. Another big factor is that people are having fewer kids. The birth rate has declined significantly. I think 11 states now have more seniors than kids and for a lot of these places, and probably Ohio and a lot of its counties and communities aren't all that particularly popular destinations for young people.
And all of this kind of matters because kids and seniors have different needs. Like Ohio's older Ohioans, just look at like the amenities they want. Kids might want playgrounds and splash pads and basketball courts where older Ohioan's might want pickleball courts and walking paths and parks and different kinds of leisure activities.
And then, their needs also extend to medical care. You may need services, you may need assistance, you may need in-home assistance. Housing plays a big role because housing for families and kids are very different than what seniors want. Like senior citizens often times want flats where there are no stairs, and families with kids oftentimes want more backyards and stuff. Your spending habits are different. So yeah, I mean there are implications to this.
Jerry Kenney: So you did a lot of number crunching for this article. What are we talking about as far as growth for seniors?
Frolik: The state's senior population has increased more than 10% between 2020 and 2024, says the census, which is, that's a lot of growth in a pretty short amount of time. Some of the national estimates, AARP told me that by 2035, the U.S., for the first time ever, will be a country that's made up of more older adults than it is of children. So, I mean, these are pretty big shifts in a relatively compact period of time.
Kenney: And obviously AARP Ohio had a pretty positive spin on all of this.
Frolik: Oh, for sure. I mean, AARP, obviously, they advocate for older Americans. That's the whole reason they exist, but they're saying, they make the point that, you know, older Ohioans contribute to their communities in a lot of ways. Many work, of course, some people retire or slow down working or scale back and are work part-time or something. But of course they're working, they're paying taxes, they support growing the job market, they go places, they shop, they give money to charitable causes. And then older Ohioans help with family caretaking, take care of their grandchildren or their loved ones if they need help. So yeah, I haven't heard that it's necessarily bad or good that the shift's happening. It's just, it's notable, you know, I mean, it just means that communities probably are going to change some as their demographics change.
Kenney: Cory Frolik with the Dayton Daily News. The article is called, Older Adults Outnumber Children In More Than One In Four Ohio Counties, available on the Dayton Daily News website. We'll also link to it on our website. Cory, thanks so much for the conversation today.
Frolik: Yeah, thanks for having me, Jerry.
