By Carol Morello
Although the entire United States is graying, the 2010 Census showed how much faster the suburbs are growing older when compared with the cities. Thanks largely to the baby-boom generation, four in 10 suburban residents are 45 or older, up from 34 percent just a decade ago. Thirty-five percent of city residents are in that age group, an increase from 31 percent in the last census.
“When people think of suburban voters, it’s going to be different than it was years ago,” Frey said. “They used to be people worried about schools and kids. Now they’re more concerned about their own well-being.”
The nation’s baby boomers — 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 — were the first generation to grow up in suburbia, and the suburbs is where many chose to rear their own children. Now, as the oldest boomers turn 65, demographers and local planners predict that most of them will not move to retirement areas such as Florida and Arizona. They will stay put.
“If you ask younger boomers, who are 45-ish, a lot say they expect to move and retire elsewhere,” said John Kenney, chief of aging and disability services with the Montgomery County health department. “But as people get to 65 and 70, whether because of choice or default, they end up staying. We are planning on people being here.”
Local governments are starting to grapple with the implications. As part of its 50 Plus Action Plan, Fairfax County has converted its pedestrian traffic signals to countdowns so people can gauge whether they have enough time to cross.
The county has held forums on kitchen and bath remodeling designs that make the areas accessible for wheelchair users. It collaborated with George Mason University in a course on coping during retirement. And a police unit has been formed to focus on financial fraud committed against the elderly.
About 1.5 million people, or 27 percent of the Washington area, are part of the baby-boom generation. The largest concentrations are in Fairfax, with about 310,000 boomers; Montgomery, with 275,000; and Prince George’s County, with 225,000.
“Clearly, the age wave is coming,” said Pat Herrity (R-Springfield), a county supervisor who heads the 50-plus committee.
In Montgomery, where 11 residents turn 65 every day, the county two years ago held a summit on the needs of its elderly residents.
Since then, it has developed a Web site listing all of the services available to seniors. It has helped several neighborhood groups establish “villages” in which younger residents volunteer to help drive their elderly neighbors to appointments. And to meet seniors’ growing need for income after the stock market faltered, it has staged job fairs.
“Retirement used to be the golden years,” said Kenney. “No more.”
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