North Carolina is aging. Racial and ethnic diversity is slowing the trend.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- North Carolina’s growing Asian and Hispanic populations help slow overall aging.
- Seniors now outnumber children in 56 of 100 North Carolina counties, mostly rural.
- Since 2020, residents ages 75–79 grew 28.6%, the state’s fastest-growing age group.
North Carolina’s increasing racial and ethnic diversity is helping slow the aging of the state’s population, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Asian and Hispanic residents are the fastest growing groups in North Carolina, and they’re also younger on average than the white and Black population that has dominated the state for most of its history.
Nearly 39% of the state’s Hispanic residents and 25.5% of Asian residents were under the age of 20 last year, according to the census. Meanwhile, only 5.1% of Hispanic residents and 9.2% of Asian residents were 65 or older.
Compare that to white residents, the largest racial group in the state, where 22.5% were 65 or older and 19.6% were under the age of 20. Since 2020, the number of white residents under the age of 20 actually declined by 2.4%, while the number of Black people in that age group rose by just .2%.
The aging of America is a national phenomenon, as the last of the post-World War II baby boomer generation reaches retirement age. That, combined with lower birth rates in recent years, means the number of people age 65 and older is growing nationwide, while those under age 18 actually declined .2% last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Children still outnumber older adults in the United States, despite a decline in births this decade,” Lauren Bowers, chief of the bureau’s Population Estimates Branch, said in a statement. “However, the gap is narrowing as baby boomers continue to age into their retirement years. In fact, the number of states and counties where older adults outnumber children is on the rise, especially in sparsely populated areas.”
That’s true in North Carolina, where 56 of 100 counties now have more residents age 65 and older than under the age of 18. They are primarily rural counties but include some that attract retirees, such as Chatham in the Triangle and Buncombe, home of Asheville.
Other measures of the state’s aging population in the new data:
▪ The number of residents age 65 or older has grown 15% since 2020, while the number under age 18 grew more slowly, at 1.7%.
▪ The fastest-growing age group since 2020 is people between 75 and 79, at 28.6%, followed by people 80 to 84, at just over 23%.
▪ The median age — the point at which half the population is older and half is younger — was 39.2 in North Carolina last year, up from 38.9 in 2020. The state’s median age is slightly above the national mark of 39.1 but has not increased as much in recent years. The national median was 38.5 in 2020.
The aging of North Carolina’s population has been tempered in part by growth among Hispanic and Asian residents, who the census bureau defines as people with origins in an area stretching from Korea to Pakistan. Together, the two groups accounted for more than 1.7 million people, or about 16% of the population last year, up from 6.3% in 2000.
In that time, white non-Hispanic residents went from 70.2% of the state’s population in 2000 to 59.9% last year. Black or African-American residents also make up a smaller share of the population, declining from 21.5% in 2000 to 20.8% last year.
The largest concentration of Asian residents is in Wake County, where 125,000 residents or about 1 in 10 are Asian or of Asian heritage.
The agricultural counties of Duplin and Sampson, southeast of Raleigh, led the state with the highest concentration of Hispanics, at about 24%. The census bureau’s estimates are for July 1, 2024, before the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and restrictions on visas and research grants that attract foreign students and scientists.
Find details for your county in our searchable table.
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
