Go West, Old Man, Where Senior Citizens Feel Younger
at Heart
Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends
finds two-thirds of Westerners ages 65 and older say they feel younger
than their chronological years
Aug. 10, 2009 - If a latter-day Ponce de Leon were
to search for a modern fountain of youth, he'd do well to explore
America's West. There he'd find the highest concentration of older
adults in the United States who don't think of themselves as old.
Fully
78% of adults ages 65 and older who live in the West say they don't feel
old, compared with 67% of older adults who live in the rest of the
country, according to a Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends
telephone survey.
Asked how old they feel, two-thirds of Westerners
ages 65 and older say they feel younger than their chronological years,
compared with 57% of older Americans in other regions. Among older
Westerners, half say they feel 10 or more years younger than their
actual age and one-in-five say they feel 20 or more years younger.
Older folks living in the West also feel healthier
than older folks elsewhere. Among adults ages 65 and older, some 72% of
those living in the West say they are in excellent or good health. This
compares with 63% of those living in other regions of the country.
Differences in self-reported health by region are not seen among other
age groups in the population.
Older Westerners also get more exercise. Some 77%
of Westerners ages 65 and older report they get some kind of physical
exercise on a typical day, compared with 69% of those in the rest of the
country. But when this question is refined just to include "vigorous"
exercise, there is no statistically significant difference by region in
the amount of daily exercise that older adults get.
How else do older Westerners compare with older
adults in the rest of the country? The Pew Research survey finds broad
similarities by region on many attitudes and experiences related to the
aging process, but some notable differences when it comes to residential
mobility, family relationships and living arrangements.
For example, older Americans in the West are more
likely than those who live elsewhere to have moved at least once in
their lives. According to a different Pew Research Center survey
conducted late last year, just 23% of Westerners ages 62 and older have
lived in their current community for their entire life.
By contrast, more than a third of older adults
living in the South say they have lived in the same community all their
lives, as have roughly four-in-ten older adults living in the Northeast
and Midwest.
This mobility appears to have created some distance
between older adults in the West and their families.
Majorities of older adults who have children and
who live in the Northeast (53%), Midwest (59%) or South (58%) say they
are in touch with a son or daughter every day, either in person, by
phone or by email.
By contrast, among older adults who have children
and are living in the West, only four-in-ten (41%) are in touch with a
son or daughter on a daily basis. However, this does not mean that older
folks in the West are less satisfied with their relationship with their
children -- to the contrary, they are just as likely as older adults
living in other regions of the country to say they are very satisfied
with this aspect of their lives.
How else do older Westerners compare with older
adults in the rest of the country? The Pew Research survey finds broad
similarities by region on many attitudes and experiences related to the
aging process, but some notable differences when it comes to residential
mobility, family relationships and living arrangements.