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Who are those two beige outliers in 2025, remaining at less than 13%? They’re Mansfield and New Haven, home to Connecticut’s two flagship universities (University of Connecticut and Yale University, respectively), with large transient student populations, partially masking the growth of the older adult population.
It Didn’t Happen Overnight
Connecticut’s demographic transformation has been spurred by medical, social and economic advances. And it has been buoyed by baby boomers, people born between the years 1946 and 1964, who were part of the noticeable increase in birth rate post-World War II. At every stage, baby boomers have been changing this country, and now is no exception.
Not only are their sheer numbers larger than any other previous generation, but they also longer-lived. Though life expectancy for women continues to exceed that for men, on average, the different in life expectancy between women and men is projected to decrease moving forward.
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Living Longer
In Connecticut, a person born today can expect to live an average of 80.8 years, the 3rd highest life expectancy in the nation. However, there are significant disparities in life expectancy between racial and ethic groups. Life expectancy is 89.1 years for Asian Americans; 83.1 years for Latinos; 81.0 years for Whites, and 77.8 years for African Americans.
New Realities
Between 2010 and 2040, Connecticut’s population of people age 65 and older is projected to grow by 57%, but its population of people age 20 to 64 is projected to grow less than 2%. Overwhelmingly, these growing numbers of older adults want to stay in their communities and have choice, independence and dignity. To make it happen, we need age-diverse communities that support Connecticut residents across the lifespan.
As a nonpartisan public policy office at the Connecticut General Assembly, we at the Commission on Women, Children and Seniors help prepare the state and communities for broad-scale societal transformation that will result from a longer-lived, rapidly growing population of older adults. The aging of Connecticut is an issue that affects us all – it’s our grandparents, our parents, ourselves.
A special thank you to the CT Data Collaborative for the data used above.