Studies Verify Spokane Has Lots Of Elders

Spokane is often perceived as a city with more than its share of elderly.

When young people graduate, they leave to pursue careers in places affording greater opportunities, people will tell you.

Further contributing to the age imbalance, it is said that when people around here retire, they just naturally gravitate to the region’s hub. Familiar, comfortable and close to loved ones, Spokane is like a second home to the vast majority of Inland Northwesterners.

Spokane offers the services sought by retirees that outlying small towns can’t afford to duplicate - most importantly top notch medical care, but also cultural attractions and entertainment events.

But others contend that youngsters who flock in from farms and small towns for hundreds of miles around far outweigh the old-timers. The young come for entry level jobs, higher education, and a step up to the big cities.

So what are the facts? Does Spokane have a disproportionately large share of gray heads?

The answer is, yes and no, according to a nationwide study conducted by the U.S Bureau of the Census and the National Institute on Aging.

Yes, metropolitan Spokane has one of the largest concentrations of older folks of any place in America.

There are more than 3,000 counties in the United States, and Spokane County’s senior population ranks number 123 in size, study results show. That places Spokane among the top few percent of counties in the nation for total population 65 and older.

In 1991, there were 49,426 persons residing in Spokane who were 65 or older, researchers reported in the study, entitled “65+ in the United States.” That was 13.2 percent of the total county population.

But, no, percentagewise, elders do not dominate in Spokane to anywhere near the degree they do in many other cities.

In terms of age density, no place in the Northwest can match some spots in Hawaii, Florida, and the Southwest.

Total population of sparsely settled Kalawao County, Hawaii is 130. But one out of three is 65 and older. Among major metropolitan areas of America, the highest density of seniors is in Florida, as one would expect. The population of Pinellas County (Tampa and St. Petersburg) exceeds 1 million. One in four - or more than a quarter of a million residents - are seniors.

In 385 U.S. counties more than 20 percent of the population is 65 and up. Just one of the top 200 of those counties is in the Pacific Northwest. One-fourth of the population of Curry County, Oregon, is 65 and over. That makes Curry County - in Oregon’s southwest corner - 103rd in the nation for percent of seniors.

Further down on the list of counties in which one of five residents is 65 or older are Garfield, Clallam and San Juan in Washington, Tillamook and Josephine in Oregon, and Sheridan, Wheatland, Fergus and Sweetgrass in Montana.

Not surprisingly, the Northwest’s largest concentrations of seniors are in King County (Seattle) and Multnomah County (Portland). Spokane is third.

In King County, however, only 11 percent of the population is 65 and up - contrasted with 13.2 percent in Spokane.

No matter, with 168,632 persons 65 and over, King County has the 20th largest elderly population in the United States.

Snohomish ranks 132nd with only 45,301 elders. But persons 65 and older make up just 9 percent of the population.

In the special study on aging, Washington’s 65-and-over population is projected to be the fifth fastest growing of any state in the nation in the years ahead. This older age group is expected to more than double in the next quarter century in Washington.

By the year 2020 one in six Washingtonians will be 65 or older.

Washington is one of only eight states in which the percentage of persons 65 and older is forecast to double. All are in the West, except Georgia. Despite the Pandhandle lake country’s popularity as a retirement destination, Idaho is not among them. Though not in the study, Idaho records show that in Kootenai County in July 1994, 11,261 residents (13 percent) of the total 87,278 were 65 and older.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes on retirement issues each Sunday. He can be reached with ideas for future columns at 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review