June 3, 2019

Cities With The Most Working Seniors

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Where are seniors still working in America? We analyzed cities with a population of 200,000 or more to find out which have the most seniors (age 65 and over) still in the workforce.

As the retirement age slowly creeps up, it might not be surprising to know that many seniors are working longer. This could be due to several reasons such as financial reasons, or simply wanting to continue working out of enjoyment. Regardless of the reason, it’s clear that a large number of seniors are still working in cities throughout the country. Our list of the top 25 cities shows that at least 20% or more of the senior population is still in the workforce within those cities. 

They say everything is bigger in Texas and apparently the same can be said for work ethic. Five out of the top 10 cities with the most seniors in the workforce are located in the Lone Star State. Plano tops the list with a quarter of its senior population still working. Garland, Austin, Dallas and Irving also make the top 10 list at No. 5, 6, 8 and 10, respectively.

Surprisingly, large metro cities didn’t make much of an appearance on the list. Less than half of the cities within the top 25 have a population of 500,000 or more. In fact, cities like New York and Chicago didn’t even make the top 50, according to our analysis.

Our analysis also looked at cities that have experienced the most growth in terms of seniors in the workforce since 2009. Interestingly, Plano once again ranks high and comes in at No. 2 with nearly 100% growth in its senior workforce since 2009. Its total senior population also experienced incredible growth during that same period. 

Along with Plano, ten other cities that appeared on the list of cities with the most seniors in the workforce also appeared on this list including: Anchorage, Austin, Durham, Huntington Beach, Lincoln, Minneapolis, Raleigh, Santa Clarita, Seattle and Yonkers. Every city on this list has experienced 60% or greater growth in its senior workforce since 2009.  

As the retirement age continues to increase it will be interesting to see how these rankings evolve over the next several years. But for now, it’s clear to see that seniors living within these cities have work ethic in their DNA.

Methodology

In order to determine cities with the most seniors in the workforce, we analyzed data from cities with a population of 200,000 or more via the Census Bureau. From there we were able to determine what percentage of each city’s senior population (age 65 and over) is currently in the workforce. We also included each city’s total senior population for context. 

We used the same data to determine where the senior workforce has grown the most since 2009. For comparison, we also included the total senior population increase within each city. 

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