The 10-question questionnaire for the decennial census is in the mail. And a long process will follow to gather the data, crunch the numbers and report the population and demographic changes that might re-sew the fabric of American society.
But already there are some expectations about what we might see, and some of those expectations apply to Baby Boomers and how they'll live out the next 10 years, making the transition to the oldest, most dominant population of the United State.
Here is what some media are speculating:
The AARP Bulletin expects, besides the fact that the generation will get more gray, will also largely stay in place, reinforcing the notion that Baby Boomers for the most part will want to age in place. But for those who will retire to another location the expectation that they'll transform the places they live by requiring services (such as medical) that some communities might not be prepared right now to provide.
“You used to think of places that attracted seniors as specialized retirement communities (such as Sun City, AZ, one of the first seniors only communities in the country). Now, in effect, most of America will be a ‘retirement’ community,” William Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer, told the Bulletin.
This creates, according to the Bulletin, a situation where Baby Boomers, their elders and their children can be considered, as a whole, “the attachment generations.”
Noted the Bulletin: "Graying populations will change political equations in suburbs where catering to younger families was once the only calculus that mattered, and they will also strengthen those communities’ social networks simply by virtue of their commitment to family and local institutions."
The census will determine representation in Congress. Shifting populations may add representatives in some states and decrease them in others. The information the census collects also helps determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like:
- Hospitals
- Job training centers
- Schools
- Senior centers
- Bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects
- Emergency services
More information about the 2010 census can be found at the U.S. Census Bureau web site.
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