Current population trends might make it easier to find insurance and retirement planning clients who are already 65 or older than to find near-retiree clients.
New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the number of young retirees, or U.S. residents ages 65 through 74, increased 3.3% between 2020 and 2021, to 34 million.
The number of near retirees, or people ages 55 through 64, was bigger — 43 million — but it fell 0.6%, year over year.
The Census Bureau on Thursday published the latest annual estimates of the the resident population, by single year of age.
The estimates reflect the effects of births, immigration, emigration and the impact of health conditions such as COVID-19 and opioid use.
The estimates also reflect changes in data collection efforts and analysis methods.
The new table shows, for example, that the number of 99-year-olds fell 8.9%, to 52,579, and that the number of people ages 100 and older fell 2.3%, to 97,914. Those decreases reflect improvements in efforts to track deaths as well as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The most common age was 31: The number of U.S. residents that age increased 2.9% last year, to 4.75 million.
The total number of people ages 85 and older dropped 0.7%, to 6 million.
