March 2006

NIH report highlights changes in U.S. aging

According to a new U.S. Census Bureau report, commissioned by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), today’s older Americans are very different from their predecessors. They live longer, have lower rates of disability, achieve higher levels of education, and live less often in poverty.

And the baby boomers, the first of whom celebrated their 60th birthdays in 2006, promise to redefine further what it means to grow older in America.

The report, “65+ in the United States: 2005,” was prepared for NIA, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to provide a picture of the health and socioeconomic status of the aging population at a critical time in the maturing of the United States.

Among the trends:

Source: National Institutes of Health—National Institute on Aging, http://www.nia.nih.gov/