Most Michigan Counties Now Have More Seniors Than Youths

The demographic age shift which is occurring across the nation is even more pronounced in Michigan as our youth leave the state for greener prospects.  The decline of youth and the increase of elderly citizens has and will severely strain health care delivery:

https://www.mlive.com/data/2025/06/majority-of-michigan-counties-now-have-more-seniors-than-children.html

https://www.house.mi.gov/hfa/PDF/RevenueForecast/DTMB_Michigan_Demographic_Trends_May2023.pdf

Majority of Michigan counties now have more seniors than children
By Julie Mack | June 16, 2025

In 1970, thanks to Baby Boomers, Michigan had four times more children than senior citizens.

That year, 37% of state residents were children under age 18 while 8.5% of residents were 65 and older, according to the 1970 Census.

A half-century later, those Boomers have swelled the senior citizens ranks and the numbers have changed considerably.

Compared to 3.25 million children in 1970, Michigan now has 2.1 million – a 35% decline. Meanwhile, the state population has grown from 8.9 million to 10.1 million.

The senior population has exploded from about 750,000 in 1970 to 1.9 million.

In the most recent Census data, Michiganders under age 18 comprise about 21% of the state population and seniors about 19%.

However, more than half of Michigan counties now have more seniors than children – that’s true in 45 of 83 Michigan counties, according to an MLive analysis of Census data from 1970 and the most recent Census county age data, which are 2023 estimates.

On the map, below, green counties have more children than seniors, while red counties have more seniors than children.

[See interactive graphic at the hyperlink, above]

It’s a huge demographic shift that has profound implications, not just for the state was a whole, but also for individual communities – from falling school enrollment to the growing demand for senior citizen housing and services.

Below are four key takeaways from that analysis.

The demographic shift has occurred statewide, regardless of county size.
One of the biggest swings occurred in Ontonagon County, home of the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula.

In 1970, Ontonagon had about four children from every senior. It’s now flipped -- there are about three seniors for every child.

Another county with a dramatic shift is Macomb in metro Detroit. In 1970, there were 8.5 children for every senior citizen, the highest ratio in the state. Now that ratio is almost 1 to 1.

Children were a major demographic segment in 1970
In 70 of Michigan’s 83 counties, at least one-third of the population was comprised of children in 1970.

In seven counties – Clinton, Midland, Macomb, Alpena, Monroe, Livingston and Lapeer – children were 40% or more of the population.

There were only four counties under 30% -- Keweenaw, Houghton, Iron and Mecosta. Three are in the western Upper Peninsula. The exception is Mecosta, home of Big Rapids and Ferris State University.

The map below shows which Michigan counties had the highest percentage of residents who were under 18 in 1970.

[See interactive graphic at the hyperlink, above]

The decline in children has been profound.

In 1970, the percentage of population comprised of children ranged from a high of 41.6% in Clinton County, part of metro Lansing, to a low of 26.2% in Keweenaw, Michigan’s northernmost county in the Upper Peninsula.

Keweenaw’s 1970 percentage would rank first among the 83 counties, today.

The current range is a high of 24.4% in St. Joseph County, which includes Three Rivers and Sturgis, and a low of 11.6% in Ontonagon.

In more than half of Michigan counties, children are less than 20% of the current population. The numbers are especially dire in the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula, which has implications for the survival of the region’s remote, rural school districts.

And it’s a situation likely to worsen as the state’s birth rate continues to decline.

Michigan births peaked in 1957, when the state recorded 208,808 births. It’s been falling since, outside of a bit of a pop in the 1980s and ‘90s when Baby Boomers were in prime childbearing years and gave birth to the Millennial generation.

In 2023, Michigan recorded 99,178 births, continuing a downward trend since the 1990s, according to state data. It was the first time Michigan births had fallen below 100,000 since 1940 – when the state’s population was about 5.2 million compared to 10.1 million now.

The map, below, shows which counties have the most and fewest kids, as a percentage of each county’s overall population.

Growth in the senior population has been substantial statewide
In 1970, there was only one county – Lake County north of Grand Rapids – where at least 20% of the population was comprised of senior citizens. In 35 counties, it was less than 10%

Today, there are 50 counties where the percentage of seniors exceeds 20% and nine counties – Ontonagon, Alcona, Keweenaw, Roscommon, Presque Isle, Leelanau, Montmorency, Iron and Iosco – where it exceeds 30%.

Ontonagon, Keweenaw and Iron are all in the Upper Peninsula. The others are all in the northern Lower Peninsula.

In some respects, the influx of senior citizens has been a boon in counties such as Leelanau, which has evolved from rural farming regions to upscale retirement communities. But it also can contribute to rising real estate prices that price out younger families and contribute to workforce shortages.

The chart, below, shows the swing in each county from 1970 to 2023.

[See interactive graphic at the hyperlink, above]

There are only three Michigan counties today where the senior population is less than 15% -- Isabella (13.7%), home of Central Michigan University; Kent (14.5%), home of Grand Rapids, and Ingham (14.6%), home of Michigan State University.

Growth in the senior population can be attributed two major factors: The aging of the Baby Boomers, the nation’s largest-ever generation, and the fact that people are living longer.

In 1970, Michigan’s life expectancy was 67.2 years for men and 74.5 for women. Today, it’s 75.5 for men and 80.5 women.

A 2023 state report estimated Michigan young population (birth to age 24) will decline by 5% by 2050, while the share of the older population (age 55 and older) will increase by 14% during that time.