Older Foreigners May Be a Quarter of U.S. Seniors in 50 Years

(Bloomberg) --

America’s population is aging and rapidly turning more multicultural.

Foreign-born senior citizens as a group may triple over the next 50 years and account for almost a quarter of all seniors, outpacing the pace of growth for all residents over age 65.

The number of naturalized citizens, lawful residents or migrants reached 7.3 million in 2018, or 14% of the over-65 group, according to a Census Bureau report this week. Almost three quarters are naturalized and lived in the U.S. for more than three decades, with Latin America the biggest source of the seniors.

By 2060, their ranks will swell to 22 million and account for 23% of all older Americans. Overall, the U.S. will have 98.2 million seniors at mid-century.

“Although U.S. policymakers and others have had many decades to plan for the inevitable aging of the baby boom cohort, it is not clear that sufficient preparations have been made to meet baby boomers’ anticipated needs in old age,” the Population Reference Bureau said in a report that described the growth as “unprecedented in U.S. history.”

The Census Bureau report for 2012-16 showed more immigrants from Asia and Latin America -- a target in the Trump administration’s campaign to stop migrant flows -- than from the traditional European and African nations, which dominated early U.S. immigration. Before 1880, almost 90% came from Europe, mostly Britain, Ireland and Germany, then dropped to 83% in the 1880-1929 peak years, when more than 22 million entered.

Baby Boomers

Through the 2020s, the overall population of those over 65 will surge as baby boomers -- those born between 1946 and 1964 -- reach retirement age.
The Census Bureau report, culled from a sampling of every U.S. county, showed most, or 26%, of foreign born residents have lived in the U.S. for more than three decades, with just 8.7% arriving since 2005. More than half of older Europeans and a fifth of the older Latin Americans got to the U.S. before 1965.

Foreign-born older residents had a mean income of $59,786, slightly less than the $61,289 for those born in the U.S. The non-U.S. group drew less in Social Security and supplemental benefits. On a percentage basis, more foreign-born seniors got food stamps, at 17%, compared with 8% for native-born seniors.

English Speakers

Less than half of older foreign-born residents only spoke English at home, the report showed. Those from Latin America and Asia were “most likely to speak English less than ‘very well,”’ the bureau said. “The majority of the older foreign-born from the rest of the world, including Europe and Africa, were more likely to speak only English at home.”

California, Florida and New York were home to more than half of the older foreign residents, followed by Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Arizona, Washington and Pennsylvania.

By comparison, senior citizens from outside the U.S. mostly lived in the west and south (66%) and less in the midwest, while their native-born counterparts were likely to live in the south and Midwest (62%) and less in the west and northeast.

Metropolitan New York had the most foreign-born residents at 938,000 in the 2012-16 period, followed by Los Angeles, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Chicago and San Francisco. Such residents were a greater proportion of the population in El Paso, Texas, and Honolulu, the survey showed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Geimann in Washington at sgeimann@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ian Fisher

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.