The U.S. Census Bureau released a report showing that the number of centenarians in the United States increased by 50% between 2010 and 2020, rising from 53,364 to 80,139. Centenarians—people aged 100 or older—made up just two out of every 10,000 people in the country in 2020.
The growth rate of this age group was higher than for other older adult groups over the same period. The “Centenarians: 2020” report analyzes data from the 2020 Census and provides information on age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, living arrangements, and geographic distribution.
According to the report, “In 2020, centenarians were overwhelmingly female at 78.8%. This was a slight decline from 2010, when centenarians were 82.8% female.” The male centenarian population grew by more than four-fifths (85.3%) between 2010 and 2020 compared to a growth of about two-fifths (42.9%) for females.
The racial makeup of centenarians became slightly more diverse over the decade. There was an approximately eight percentage-point drop in those identifying as White alone among centenarians—a trend similar to other older age groups but less pronounced than among people under age 65. However, “Black or African American alone centenarians were an exception to the general pattern. The percentage of centenarians who were Black or African American alone declined from 12.2% in 2010 to 10.3% in 2020.”
Geographically, some regions had higher concentrations of people aged at least one hundred years old than others. “Compared with the national centenarian proportion of 2.42 per 10,000 people in the population, the Northeast had the highest centenarian proportion among regions at 3.19 centenarians per 10,000 people.” Hawaii led all states with more than four centenarians per ten thousand residents (4.44), followed by Puerto Rico (4.14). No state had fewer than one per ten thousand; Utah had the lowest proportion at just over one (1.04), with Alaska close behind.
Patterns also emerged regarding where and how these individuals lived: “In 2020, female centenarians lived alone without familiar household members to a much greater extent than male centenarians.” Nearly half (49.7%) of male centenarians lived with others in a household compared to about one-third (33.8%) of females.
When considering institutional living situations such as nursing homes: “Among centenarians, 27.6% of females were living in a nursing home while only 14.2% of males were living in a nursing home.” Combining these figures shows that about two-thirds (66.2%) of female centenarians either lived alone or in group settings like nursing homes versus about half (50.3%) for males.
Living arrangements also varied by race and ethnicity: “The centenarian living arrangement with notably more racial and ethnic diversity in 2020 was ‘living with others in a household,’ while the centenarian living arrangements with the least racial and ethnic diversity were nursing homes and ‘living alone in a household.’ Centenarians who were Hispanic or Latino, Asian alone, and ‘All Other Races’ were notably more likely to live with others in a household…while White alone and not Hispanic centenarians were much less likely…Black or African American alone centenarians were in the middle.”
The report provides updated insights into how America’s oldest residents differ demographically from younger seniors.
