Go West, Old Man
where Older Adults feel Young
at Heart
August 7, 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.1
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 of a
nationally representative sample of 2,969
adults. (story continues below)
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.2
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. (story continues below)
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.
Continue reading the
full report at pewsocialtrends.org.
