Components of change in the residential concentration of the elderly population: 1950-1975

Changes in the absolute and relative size of the elderly population within metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas are decomposed into the underlying demographic components for three time periods: 1950 to 1960, 1960 to 1970, 1970 to 1975. Specifically, we examine the components of net migration and natural increase of those aged 0 to 64 and those 64 or older. Using published migration estimates for the U.S., this study demonstrates that elderly migration has represented an increasingly important component of the absolute growth of the elderly population within nonmetropolitan areas and a corresponding decline in large SMSAs. Although "aging-in-place" was a dominant component of change in he elderly percentage irrespective of residence, we show that the demographic components of the young also exercise an important and often overlooked effect on the aging process. Most prominent was the slowing of relative aging in remote nonmetropolitan areas, due largely to the post-1970 changeover from net outmigration to net inmigration of those less than 65 years of age.