The Golden State has the largest number of residents living well into their golden years, according to a new U.S. Census report issued on Sept. 22.
California reported 10,623 residents older than 100 years old, followed by New York (6,921), Florida (6,580), and Texas (4,435) as the top states with the highest population of centenarians.
Alaska recorded only 94 centenarians, which was the fewest, followed by Wyoming (126), Vermont (167), and Delaware (197), with each having fewer than 200 centenarians statewide, according to the census report.
The new report “Centenarians: 2020” examined living arrangements and other details of the 80,139 people living in the U.S. who were 100 years old or older in 2020.
“Living to the age of 100 is extremely rare,” the census wrote in the report.
In 2020, U.S. residents who lived until the age of 65 were expected to reach about 83.5 years old on average.
“Centenarians ... defied those odds,” the census reported.
Beyond living arrangements and locations, the census also found that more men were living past age 100 in 2020, when compared to 2010 census tallies.
Centenarians remain overwhelmingly female—accounting for nearly 79 percent of the population. But that percentage has declined. In 2010, nearly 83 percent were female.
“Centenarians, a largely White alone and female population, became slightly more racially diverse and male in 2020,” the census reported. “The increase in racial diversity (i.e., about an 8 percentage-point decline in the White alone share) was on par with what was shown for other age groups among the older population.”
The only group of centenarians to decline in the past decade was African Americans, who dropped to 10.3 percent in 2020 from 12.2 percent in 2010.
Age and Sex Differences
More than half—or nearly 61 percent—of the centenarians in the U.S were 100 or 101.
100-year-old Vee Duurloo attends a rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump in Prescott Valley, Ariz., on Oct. 13, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Super-centenarians—people who were 110 or older—numbered 1,933 nationwide, according to the census.
According to a recent National Center for Health Statistics report, females generally live about 5.7 years longer than males. Women are expected to live to 79.9 years on average, while men live to about 74.2 years, according to the census.
State Proportion Numbers
According to the numbers from the 2020 U.S. Census, Hawaii had the largest proportion of centenarians. It was the only state with more than four—4.44 to be exact—centenarians per 10,000 in 2020. Puerto Rico reported 4.14 centenarians per 10,000 people.
States with relatively high proportions of centenarians—between 3.5 and 3.99 per 10,000 people—were Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Connecticut.
The nationwide centenarian proportion is 2.42 per 10,000, the census reported.
Utah and Alaska had the lowest proportion of centenarians per 10,000, according to the census.
Marie Hendrix (L) and Gabrielle Vaudremer, 100-year-old Belgian twins, celebrate their birthday. (Nicolas Lambert/AFP/Getty Images)
Global Comparisons
The number of U.S. centenarians was among the largest of all countries, the study revealed.
Globally, Japan had the highest proportion of citizens aged 65 and older in the world, while Italy had the highest proportion of 65 and older residents in Europe, according to the census.
The U.S. proportion of 2.42 centenarians per 10,000 people was slightly smaller than Italy’s figure of 2.48. It was also less than half of the share for Japan, which recorded 6.37 centenarians per 10,000 people, according to the census.
