Austin senior population brings silver tsunami

AUSTIN – The senior population in the Austin area grew at a faster rate than any other age group between April 2010 and July 2013, according to the most recent census estimates.

The estimates bolster a previous city report that found Austin has the third-fastest growing senior population in the country, and the nation’s fastest growing “pre-senior” population, or those 55 to 64.

That “silver tsunami” carries implications for everything from Austin’s health care system to its transportation to the seemingly inevitable balancing the city will have to do between the costs of programs for the growing elderly population against the region’s other needs.

It isn’t clear from the census estimates how much of the growing senior population has recently moved to Austin from somewhere else, and how much of it is simply baby boomers reaching their silver years.

*Change from April 2010
Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Read more at the Austin American-Statesman.