Senior living spans community-based support, home health, adult day services, nursing homes, hospice, and residential care communities. These statistics describe the U.S. older population, the people using different services, resident needs, and safety outcomes across clearly identified years and definitions.
Key Senior Living Statistics
The most important figures provide a quick view of senior living’s scale and needs:
- In 2023, 59,307,056 U.S. residents were age 65 or older, according to the American Community Survey estimate.
- In the 2020 Census, 55.8 million U.S. residents were age 65 or older.
- From 2010 to 2020, the U.S. age-65-and-older population increased 38.6%.
- In 2022, people age 65 and older represented 16.8% of the U.S. population.
- In 2022, 6.5 million U.S. residents were age 85 or older.
- In 2022, Maine had the highest state share of residents age 65 or older, at 22.5%.
- In 2022, the median personal income of older people reporting income was $29,740.
- In 2020, almost 3 million people received home-health-agency care in the United States.
- In 2020, about 90% of home-health patients were age 65 or older.
- In 2020, nearly 1.3 million people were nursing-home residents in the United States.
- In 2022, about 182,000 people participated in adult-day-services-center care.
- In 2022, residential care communities had about 1,016,400 residents on a given day.
- In 2022, about 94% of residential-care-community residents were age 65 or older.
- In 2022, 53% of residential-care-community residents were age 85 or older.
- In 2022, 62% of residential-care-community residents needed help with three or more activities of daily living.
- In 2022, 75% of residential-care-community residents needed bathing assistance.
- In 2022, 44% of residential-care-community residents had an Alzheimer disease or other dementia diagnosis.
- In 2020, 27.6% of U.S. adults age 65 or older reported a fall in the prior year.
- In 2021, there were 38,742 unintentional fall deaths among U.S. adults age 65 or older.
- In 2023, the fall-death rate for U.S. adults age 65 or older was 69.9 per 100,000.
Contents
- The size and growth of the older U.S. population
- Senior living demographics, households, and income
- Senior living options and service use
- Assisted living resident demographics and needs
- Health and daily-living support in residential care
- Senior living safety, falls, and mortality
The Size and Growth of the Older U.S. Population
The population base is large and growing, but the source and year matter. The 2020 Census is a decennial count, while the 2022 and 2023 figures are profile or ACS estimates with different methods.
- The 2023 ACS estimated 59,307,056 people age 65 and older in the United States.
- The 2020 Census counted 55.8 million people age 65 and older.
- The Census comparison reported a 38.6% increase from 2010 to 2020 for the age-65-and-older population; this is a historical comparison, not a forecast.
- In 2022, older adults represented 16.8% of the U.S. population, or 55.7 million people.
- The 2022 population age 85 and older was 6.5 million, while about 101,000 people were age 100 or older.
State age profiles differ substantially:
| State, 2022 | Residents age 65+ | Measure |
|---|---|---|
| Utah | 12.0% | Lowest state share in the Profile table |
| Maine | 22.5% | Highest state share in the Profile table |
These state comparisons exclude Puerto Rico from the state ranking. Source: 2023 Profile of Older Americans.
Senior Living Demographics, Households, and Income
Income measures show why senior living affordability cannot be inferred from one household statistic. Individual medians, family-household medians, and threshold shares describe different populations.
| 2022 measure | Population | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Median personal income | Older people reporting income | $29,740 |
| Median personal income | Older men reporting income | $37,430 |
| Median personal income | Older women reporting income | $24,630 |
| Median household income | Family households headed by someone age 65+ | $73,100 |
The median income of family households headed by an older person was $73,100 in 2022. By reported race and ethnicity, the corresponding medians were $77,100 for non-Hispanic White family households, $52,240 for Hispanic family households, and $58,610 for African American family households.
Among family households with an age-65-or-older householder, about 17% had income below $35,000 and about 49% had income of $75,000 or more in 2022. Among older people reporting income, 10% reported less than $10,000 and 58% reported at least $25,000.
Real median income for households headed by an older person fell 2.1% from 2021 to 2022, although the Profile says the change was not statistically significant. These figures are from the 2023 Profile of Older Americans, and household medians should not be treated as individual income.
Senior Living Options and Service Use
Senior living is not one setting. The federal chartbook reports users across services, and its counts should not be added together because people may receive more than one service.
- Almost 3 million people received home-health-agency care in 2020; about 90% of patients were age 65 or older, and people ages 75–84 formed the largest age-group share.
- About 1.5 million people received hospice care in 2020; nearly half of hospice patients were age 85 or older. The hospice count includes all ages.
- Nearly 1.3 million people were nursing-home residents in 2020, including about 1.1 million residents age 65 or older.
- About 182,000 people received adult-day-services-center care in 2022, and adults age 65 or older made up about two-thirds of participants.
- Just over 1 million people lived in residential care communities in 2022.
The federal chartbook’s residential-care estimate and the detailed National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study estimate are closely related but should retain their separate labels: the latter counted 1,016,400 residents on a given day in 2022. The chartbook is Older Americans 2024: Key Indicators of Well-Being, and the detailed resident estimate is from Residential Care Community Resident Characteristics: United States, 2022.
Assisted Living Resident Demographics and Needs
Residential care community data provide a more specific picture than the overall older population. The 2022 study covered eligible state-regulated communities with at least four beds, at least one resident, and predominantly adult populations.
| Resident characteristic, 2022 | Share |
|---|---|
| Female | 67% |
| Male | 33% |
| White, non-Hispanic | 92% |
| Age 85+ | 53% |
| Age 75–84 | 31% |
| Age 65–74 | 10% |
| Younger than 65 | 6% |
About 17% of residents were Medicaid beneficiaries under the study definition: Medicaid paid for some or all long-term-care services during the 30 days before interview. The estimated shares were 32% among residents younger than 75, 19% among those ages 75–84, and 12% among those age 85 or older; the source flags the last estimate as not meeting reliability standards.
These are survey estimates, and race and ethnicity figures exclude cases with missing data. Source: Residential Care Community Resident Characteristics: United States, 2022.
Senior Living Health and Daily-Living Support Statistics
Activities of daily living, or ADLs, capture practical support needs. The study counts assistance, supervision, assistive devices, or a combination, and individual ADLs are not mutually exclusive.
- 62% of residents needed help with three or more ADLs in 2022.
- 26% needed help with one or two ADLs, while 12% needed no ADL assistance.
- 75% needed bathing assistance and 71% needed walking assistance; walking can include a cane, walker, wheelchair, or another person’s help.
Diagnosed conditions were also common, although the measures describe ever-diagnosed conditions rather than a clinical prevalence study:
| Diagnosis among residential-care residents, 2022 | Share |
|---|---|
| High blood pressure | 58% |
| Alzheimer disease or another dementia diagnosis | 44% |
| Heart disease | 33% |
| Depression | 26% |
| Arthritis | 18% |
Conditions are not mutually exclusive. Source: Residential Care Community Resident Characteristics: United States, 2022.
Senior Living Safety, Falls, and Mortality
Fall reporting and fall deaths measure different outcomes. The first is a survey estimate of falls during the prior year; the second comes from vital-statistics death records.
In 2020, 14 million adults age 65 or older, or 27.6%, reported a fall in the prior year. The age-adjusted self-reported rate was 28.9% for women and 26.1% for men, while state rates ranged from 19.9% in Illinois to 38.0% in Alaska.
| Fall mortality measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Unintentional fall deaths, 2021 | 38,742 |
| Age-adjusted death rate, 2021 | 78.0 per 100,000 |
| Men, 2021 | 91.4 per 100,000 |
| Women, 2021 | 68.3 per 100,000 |
| State range, 2021 | 30.7 in Alabama to 176.5 in Wisconsin per 100,000 |
The 2023 national fall-death rate was 69.9 per 100,000, based on 41,400 deaths. Age-specific rates were 19.2 per 100,000 for ages 65–74, 74.7 for ages 75–84, and 339.5 for age 85 or older.
In 2023, the rate was 74.2 per 100,000 for men age 65 or older and 66.3 for women. Among adults age 85 or older, rates were 373.3 per 100,000 for men and 319.7 for women.
The 2020–2021 findings are from Nonfatal and Fatal Falls Among Adults Aged ≥65 Years — United States, 2020–2021. The 2023 mortality findings are from Unintentional Fall Deaths in Adults Age 65 and Older: United States, 2023.