Census Bureau: Wyoming Aging Faster than Any State

The population in Wyoming has aged the fastest in the country from 2018 to 2019.

That’s according to statistics recently released by the US Census Bureau.

Wyoming’s elderly population (age 65 and over) grew 3.8 percent during those 12 months, while the state’s total population grew by only 0.2 percent during the same period.

The state’s median age rose 0.4 percent to 38.4 years while it increased in the US from 38.2 to 38.4 years.

Dr. Wenlin Liu, Chief Economist with the State of Wyoming Economic Analysis Division, said, “Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) aging was the main reason, out-migration of young people and decline of fertility rate also played roles. Ever since the first Baby Boomers turned to 65 years old in 2011, there has been a rapid increase in the size of the older population.”

Even with the fast aging, Wyoming population still ranked as the 21^st youngest in the nation in 2019.

The report also said Wyoming has the highest proportions of Baby Boom population (age 55-73 in 2019) population, and one of the lowest proportion of Generation X (age 39 to 54 in 2019) in the country.

County population estimates were also released for 2019 by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin.

Hot Springs County had the highest Hispanic population, followed by Niobrara and Johnson Counties.

Fremont County had the highest percentage of minority population, dominated by Native American population; and Laramie County had the highest overall minority population.

Crook and Lincoln Counties had the smallest minority populations.

Hot Springs County was the oldest with a median age of 48.7 years, with nearly 28 percent of its population age 65 and over. Other counties with a higher proportion of those 65 and over were Platte (25.9%), Johnson (24.6%), and Park (24.4%).

Complete population figures are available online at: and we have provided links here:

http://eadiv.state.wy.us/pop/or the U.S. Census Bureau’s website at http://www.census.gov/.