According to population projections prepared by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia, the Massachusetts population is expected to grow by 6.5 percent between 2020 and 2050, most of this growth coming this decade.
This is in contrast to the rest of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, much of the Midwest and South, and California, which are expected to decline in population over the next quarter century.
The Cooper Center predicts that the total U.S. population will grow from 331 million in 2020 to 370 million in 2050, with most of the growth occurring in Florida (9 million) and Texas (13 million).
As the following two charts show, Massachusetts will be much older in 2050 than it was in 2020.
While just 1.6% of men and 2.8% of women were 85 or older in 2020, their numbers will double as a percentage of the population by 2050, to 3.2% and 5.5%, respectively. Massachusetts residents aged 65 and over are projected to grow from 15.9% of men and 19% of women to 19.3% and 23.7%, respectively.
In actual numbers, nationally the 85 and over population is projected to more than double from 6.3 million in 2020 to 14 million in 2050. In Massachusetts, this age group also is projected to more than double from 157,000 in 2020 to 329,000 in 2050. The number of those just behind them, between the ages of 80 and 84, is also projected to almost double from 140,000 to 275,000 over the same years.
This growth of the older old demographic is significant because it’s this age group that is much more likely than younger seniors to need assistance due to cognitive and physical decline. We need to start getting ready.