According to the Orange County Register, California tops the nation in people 60 and older. Apparently, the number of people 60 and older increased by 1.5 million in the last five years from 6.71 million in 2013 to 8.22 million in 2018. The counties with the highest percentage of people over 65 are the counties of Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Trinity, and Tuolumne. The percentage of people over 65 in these counties is 19.1 percent to 22.5 percent. According to the 2010 Census, Southern California counties have some of the lowest percentages of people over 65 in the state.
Some counties are also getting older more quickly compared to other counties. The California Department of Aging estimated a 112 percent increase of older people from 1990 to 2020. The counties seeing the greatest increase in older people are the counties of Mono and Placer, which will see an increase of over 200 percent from 1990 to 2020. Apparently, the state population of people 85 or older is expected to increase by 143 percent from 1990 to 2020. It’s important to note that there are 1.12 million (15.9 percent) seniors struggling with hunger and 2.01 million (39 percent) of seniors are living in or near poverty in the state. Hopefully, we are able to help elderly people better as the number of elderly people continues to rise.
