Graphic credit: Weldon Cooper Center
As the massive Baby Boomer generation achieves senior citizen status, as people live longer and as birth rates stagnate, Virginia’s demographic pyramid won’t look very pyramidal anymore. In the future there will be a whole lot more old people, transforming the pyramid into more of a column. Yup, the geezers will be out there, driving slow and holding up traffic, doddering down the sidewalk with their walkers, blocking your way in the grocery store aisles. Grrrr. Makes you so mad…
Oh, yeah… 10 to 20 years from now, I’ll be the one holding up traffic and fishing for change in the checkout lane. Hey, what’s your hurry, buster?
This chart, based on the latest projections of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, provides the latest look at what Virginia’s age profile will look like in 2020 and 2040. None of this new — the age wave is the slowest-moving tsunami in history. But it moves so slowly that we tend to forget about it, and nothing gets done to prepare.
Will we be ready?
— JAB
