Most of the nation has made a decision to prioritize coronavirus vaccines to the 50.8 million Americans who are 65 and older, among the most vulnerable segments of the population. A Social Explorer analysis of newly released 2015-19 American Community Survey data finds roughly 10 percent of the nation’s senior citizens live in 10 large U.S. counties; half are concentrated in 170 of the nation’s 3,142 counties.

While Los Angeles has the largest senior population by far, with 1.3 million people older than 65 (almost double the 741,000 in second-place Cook County, Ill.), the largest percentage is found on the other side of the country. Sumter County, Fla., where the 70,900 seniors make up 56.7 percent of the population, is the only county where older Americans make up a majority of the population. Use Social Explorer’s online, easy-to-use mapping tools to view the concentration of older Americans in your county.

Population of Older Americans: 65 Years and Over. Click here to explore further.

Author: Frank Bass