In a new report released by the U.S. Census Bureau, data from the 2020 Census shows that the population of centenarians in the United States grew significantly over the past decade. In 2020, there were 80,139 people aged 100 or older, up from 53,364 in 2010—a 50% increase.
Despite representing only about 2 out of every 10,000 Americans, centenarians grew at a faster rate than other older adult age groups since 2010. The report examines various aspects of this population segment including age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, living arrangements, and geographic distribution.
According to the findings, women continue to make up the majority of centenarians. In 2020, females accounted for 78.8% of all centenarians—a slight decrease from 82.8% in 2010. The male centenarian population saw more rapid growth than females during this period: “Between 2010 and 2020, the male centenarian population grew by 85.3% versus a 42.9% increase for female centenarians.”
The racial composition of centenarians became somewhat more diverse in the last decade; however, they remain largely White and female overall. There was an approximately eight percentage-point decline in those identifying as White alone among centenarians—similar to trends seen in other older age groups but less pronounced than among those under age 65. One notable exception was Black or African American alone centenarians: “The percentage of centenarians who were Black or African American alone declined from 12.2% in 2010 to 10.3% in 2020.”
Geographically, certain regions had higher concentrations of people aged over one hundred years old: “Compared with the national centenarian proportion of 2.42 per 10,000 people in the population, the Northeast had the highest centenarian proportion among regions at 3.19 centenarians per 10,000 people.” Hawaii led all states with more than four centenarians per ten thousand residents (4.44), closely followed by Puerto Rico (4.14). At the lower end were Utah (1.04) and Alaska (1.28), but no state fell below one per ten thousand.
Patterns emerged regarding living arrangements for these individuals as well: “In 2020, female centenarians lived alone without familiar household members to a much greater extent than male centenarians.” Nearly half (49.7%) of male centenarians lived with others compared to just over a third (33.8%) of females; meanwhile female centenarians were twice as likely as males to reside in nursing homes—27.6% versus 14.2%. This means about two-thirds (66.2%) of female and about half (50.3%) of male centenarians either lived alone or in group quarters.
The report also notes differences based on race and ethnicity when it comes to household composition: “Centenarian living arrangement with notably more racial and ethnic diversity in 2020 was ‘living with others in a household,’ while … nursing homes and ‘living alone’ had less diversity.” Centenarians identified as Hispanic or Latino, Asian alone or “All Other Races” were most likely to live with others—over sixty percent for each group—while White non-Hispanic individuals were much less likely to do so.
The full report provides further detail on how America’s oldest residents differ demographically from younger seniors and highlights ongoing changes within this small but growing segment.
