Top 10 States for Ultra-Longevity

One sign of how complicated income planning can be: In the United States, in 2020, 80,139 people were ages 100 or older, according to new Census Bureau data. The bureau found 10,946 people who were said to be age 105 or older, meaning that about 1 in every 30,000 U.S. residents is in that ultra-long-lived age group. For a look at the 10 states with the highest numbers of residents ages 105 and older per 100,000 people, based on a Census Bureau demographic and housing characteristics data file, see the gallery above. For numbers for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, see the table below.

What It Means

The number of U.S. residents ages 105 and older shows that extreme longevity risk is a real concern. Some popular income planning strategies could falter when a client reaches a very old age. Today, for example, the typical permanent life insurance policies used in life insurance and long-term care planning mature at age 121, but older policies used in some very long-lived clients' income planning arrangements may mature when the insured reaches age 95 or age 100.

The Data

Ordinary Census Bureau estimates of the U.S. population by single year of age go up only to age 85, because collecting and analyzing data on people older than that is tricky. One challenge is that, in many jurisdictions, vital statistics recordkeeping efforts were looser prior to 1923 than they are today. Another challenge is that the relatives or guardians responsible for giving information about very old people to the Census Bureau may simply estimate those people's ages. But, in the demographic and housing characteristics single-year-of-age table, the Census Bureau is starting to include a 110-and-older category.