Sumter County, Florida: where most residents are 65 or older

In Sumter County, Florida, 57.8% of the 137,536 residents are aged 65 and over. In the median US county, the share is 19.6%. Among the 2,826 counties and county equivalents in the 50 states and DC with 5,000 or more residents, that is the highest. La Paz County, Arizona, is next, at 42.2%.

The figures come from the American Community Survey, the Census Bureau's annual household survey. They are five-year averages from the survey's 2019 to 2023 release, with incomes in 2023 dollars. The survey asks a sample of households, so each county figure is an estimate, and estimates for the smallest places rest on very few households. That is why counties with fewer than 5,000 residents are left out of the ranking below. Without that cutoff, Loving County, Texas, with 54 residents in the survey figures, would rank first. The ranking is Cambium AI's own comparison of the county figures. Each median is taken across the 3,144 counties and county equivalents in the 50 states and DC, leaving out only those with no figure for that measure.

The 10 counties with the highest share aged 65 and over

Share of all residents aged 65 and over, counties with 5,000 or more residents:

1. Sumter County, Florida: 57.8%
2. La Paz County, Arizona: 42.2%
3. Charlotte County, Florida: 40.4%
4. Lancaster County, Virginia: 40.0%
5. Jefferson County, Washington: 39.6%
6. Northumberland County, Virginia: 37.9%
7. McCormick County, South Carolina: 37.8%
8. Ontonagon County, Michigan: 37.8%
9. Sarasota County, Florida: 37.3%
10. Llano County, Texas: 36.9%

Sierra County, New Mexico, comes next, also at 36.9%. Three of the ten are in Florida. Within Florida, Charlotte County has the second highest share of the state's 67 counties, 40.4%.

Few children, small households

Children under 18 make up 7.1% of Sumter County's residents, against 22.0% in the median US county. Among counties and county equivalents with 5,000 or more residents, only two have a lower share: Forest County, Pennsylvania, at 3.6%, and the independent city of Lexington, Virginia, also 7.1% but slightly lower before rounding. Children under 5 make up 1.8% of Sumter County's residents, against 5.5% in the median US county.

Households are small too. Sumter County has 66,941 households, with an average of 1.93 people in each, against 2.45 in the median US county. The average counts only people who live in households, not those living in group quarters.

Work, income and housing

The labor force counts people aged 16 and over who are working or looking for work. In Sumter County, 25.0% of residents aged 16 and over are in it, against 58.6% in the median US county. For women aged 16 and over the share is 24.4%, against 54.6% in the median US county. That is the lowest share for women of any county or county equivalent with 5,000 or more residents.

The median household income is $73,297, against $63,672 in the median US county. The poverty rate is 9.1%, against 13.2% in the median US county. In 88.1% of occupied homes, the owner lives there, against 74.5% in the median US county. Veterans make up 14.2% of civilians aged 18 and over, against 7.5% in the median US county.

Income is above the median US county and poverty below it, but not every measure follows. The share of residents under 65 without health insurance is 12.7% in Sumter County, above the 9.9% of the median US county. These county figures describe who lives there. They do not say why.

Why the county figure matters

A service, a program or a campaign planned around the median US county would be planned for a place where nearly one resident in five is 65 or over. In Sumter County it is more than half. Knowing who lives in a place, by age, household and housing, is what population analysis for local government planners is for.

Cambium AI builds synthetic populations from public data like this, so a research or marketing team can look at who makes up an audience before a budget is set.

Data source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates