the state of aging in allegheny county - an overview

I N A L L E G H E N Y C O U N T Y

T H E S T A T E of

[ A N O V E R V I E W ]

U C S U R

A new report, The State of Aging in Allegheny County, provides acomprehensive analysis of that population in a county long rankedamong the oldest in the nation.

The report, published by the University of Pittsburgh UniversityCenter for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) and Pittsburgh Today,is based on responses to a local survey, U.S. Census Bureau data andother sources. Most of the key findings are drawn from the survey, whichwas created by UCSUR and stands as the most comprehensive survey ofseniors in a U.S. county.

The survey involved Allegheny County residents aged 55 years andolder who were selected as a representative sample of the local babyboomer and senior populations. They responded to more than 100questions covering a wide range of issues during telephone interviewsconducted from January through April 2014.

What follows is a summary of key survey findings and other datareported in The State of Aging in Allegheny County.

The complete report and survey data tables are available on thePittsburgh Today website at pittsburghtoday.org/stateofaging2014.

The report and data tables are also available at:ucsur.pitt.edu/center-reports/november-2014-state-aging-allegheny-county.

about this report

December 2014Richard Schulz, Director, University Center for Social and Urban ResearchDouglas Heuck, Director of Pittsburgh Today

Older adults are growing in numberand influence across the nation.

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I N A L L E G H E N Y C O U N T Y

T H E S T A T E of

n a few decades, the rest of America willcatch up and become as gray as Allegheny County,where older adults still account for a share of thelocal population that is greater than the nationalaverage. Aging baby boomers are swelling theranks of seniors across the nation. While the

county is no exception, the national senior populationis growing more quickly.

By 2040, forecasting models suggest, an estimated21 percent of both county and U.S. residents will be age65 or older—a demographic phenomenon with pro-found local and national implications for families, theeconomy, health care and government.

Aging trends in Allegheny County over the pastseveral decades have been greatly influenced by the eco-nomic misfortune that befell southwestern Pennsylva-nia in the 1980s, when the collapse of its steel industrytriggered a catastrophic loss of jobs and a short-lived,but substantial, exodus of residents. In 1984, when thelosses peaked, an estimated 50,000 residents left the re-

gion and an estimated 70 percent of them were underthe age of 39.

The loss of young adults, their families and futurechildren was felt immediately and for decades to come.By 1995, the population of older adults in AlleghenyCounty had risen to 18 percent, one of the highest ratesin the nation. The older adult population then began amodest decline, falling to 16.8 percent in 2010 while thenumber of seniors elsewhere in the United States wasgrowing.

Today, the county’s population of older adults isrising again, but more slowly than the rest of the nation.Demographic modeling suggests that the percentageof seniors in Allegheny County will mirror that of the

nation for the first time in 80 years in 2040.Not only will more than one in five Al-legheny County residents be aged 65 orolder, more than 1,000 will have lived longenough to celebrate their 100th birthday.That growth is expected to be uneven,

with significant differences seen across raceand gender. The number of African Ameri-can men and women aged 65 or older, for ex-ample, is expected to rise by 129 percent and100 percent, respectively, from 2010 to2050. Those rates of growth are much higherthan projected growth rates for white menand women in the county. zx

pittsburghtoday.org // UCSUR 3

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Proportion of Population Age 65+

data source: U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Census, various years

0

5

10

15

20%

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

8.1 7.89.69.2

119.9

13.8

11.3

17.4

12.6

17.8

12.4

16.8

13

Proportion of population age 65 and older,Allegheny County and U.S., 1950–2010

% united states% allegheny county

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[ A N O V E R V I E W ]

T H E S TAT E A G I N G I N A L L E G H E N Y C O U N T Y [ A N O V E R V I E W ]of

etirement is coming later inlife for a growing number of older adultswho live in southwestern Pennsylvania.

An estimated 26.4 percent of menand 15.7 percent of women age 65 or olderin the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical

Area were still on the job in 2013. That’s a sharp increasein labor force participation since 2006, when 18.2 per-cent of retirement-age men and 9.7 percent of womenwere still working.

At the same time, Allegheny County re-tirees have a great deal of confidence in theirability to meet the financial needs of retire-ment—more so, in fact, than seniors across thenation.

Nearly 37 percent of Allegheny County re-tirees, for example, are very confident they’ll beable to live comfortably in retirement. Nation-ally, only 28 percent of retirees feel the same way.And 45 percent of county retirees overall arevery confident in their ability to cover the costof basic needs, which is something 39 percent ofseniors nationwide feel they have the resourcesto do.

One reason for such high levels of financialconfidence among county retires are the pen-sions that had been a staple of worker compensa-tion when unions were strong and the region’smajor corporations were at the height of theirpower. Those days may be gone, but many ofthose pensions survive to supplement SocialSecurity and other sources of retiree income.

Other likely reasons include characteristics of theregion that help rank it as one of the most livable placesin the country, such as relatively lower housing costs anda favorable overall cost of living.

But whether future generations of retirees will enjoya similar level of financial security is an open question.Allegheny County residents aged 55 to 64 are less confi-dent than older residents that they’re financially well-prepared for retirement, and that they’ll be able to retire

in comfort with sufficient resources to cover the costs ofbasic necessities, medical care and long-term care.

|| economic impact

Even in retirement the contributions of older adultsto the local economy are anything but negligible. Nearly$6.8 billion in Medicare and Social Security dollars aloneflow into the county each year.

Those payments accounted for 11.7 percent of allpersonal income in Allegheny County in 2012—morethan double the share of personal income attributed toSocial Security and Medicare in 1970.

|| debt, poverty & disparities

Debt is less of a concern among Allegheny Countyretirees. Fewer than 10 percent of them report having amajor problem with debt—an issue that 16 percent of re-tirees nationwide struggle with.

Poverty among Allegheny County seniors has alsoremained below the national rate for decades. In 2012,poverty touched 7.8 percent of the county’s seniors com-pared to 9.5 percent nationwide.

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d

Retiree Financial ConfidenceRetiree confidence in financial aspects of retirement, Allegheny County and the United States, 2014

take care ofbasic expenses

114.3

87.6

4243

39 45

1711.2

14

12.8

39

39.1

28 36.9

14

4.5

10

10.5

3945.6

34 39.4

30

16.9

17

22.4

3138.7

20 22.1

u.s. alleghenycounty




livecomfortably

pay medicalexpenses

pay for long-term care

% very confident% somewhat confident% not too confident% not at all confident

a

d

d

data source: 2014 Survey of Older Adults in Allegheny County, UCSUR

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But wide gaps are seen across race andgenders in several measures important to thewellbeing of older adults. Such gaps areparticularly wide in measures of the financialsituations of county seniors.

Older African Americans in the countyare much more likely to have household in-comes below $15,000 than other races andare less likely to enjoy incomes of $30,000 orhigher. They are also more likely to be poor.Among seniors in Allegheny County, forexample, African American men aged 65 andolder are nearly three times more likely thanwhite senior men to live in poverty.

Older adult women of all races are morelikely than men to live in poverty. And the 21percent poverty rate among African Ameri-can women aged 75 years or older is the high-est of any group of seniors.

It’s not surprising, then, that far fewerolder African Americans than whites inAllegheny County express confidence in theirability to meet the financial requirements ofretirement. Nearly 47 percent of white olderadults, for example, are very confident intheir ability to pay for basic expenses—a levelof confidence shared by fewer than 25 per-cent of African Americans seniors.

|| wills

The rate of seniors who have advancedirectives, such as wills, increases with age.Overall, more than half of older adults inAllegheny County report having a health carepower of attorney and living will. And morethan 60 percent have a will directing the dis-tribution of their assets.

Older African Americans, however, areless likely than whites to have any of thoselegal documents. The biggest gap is seen inwills directing the distribution of assets,which is something that only 35 percent ofAfrican Americans have compared to 65 per-cent of whites. zx

dults 65 and older are unevenlyspread throughout Allegheny County. In al-most a quarter of the county’s 130 municipal-ities, they already account for at least 20percent of the population. And no munici-pality is older than Aleppo, the tiny town-

ship along the Ohio River where 54 percent of the citizens are65 or older.

The largest number of seniors is found in the City ofPittsburgh. In recent years, however, the city and most of themunicipalities in the county’s Monongahela River industrialcorridor have seen a decline in the number of older residentsand the share of the population they account for.

Allegheny County is not a place where older adults tendto migrate to. In 2012, only 1.4 percent of county seniors hadlived elsewhere a year earlier, which is about half the nationalmigration rate of seniors.

What Allegheny County has is an older population thatcan be counted on to stay put. Nearly 96 percent spent atleast the past 10 years in the county and only 4.4 percent planon leaving the region for warmer climates or other destina-tions.

One likely reason they tend stay is that they find south-western Pennsylvania a comfortable place to live. Nine in 10of those aged 65 or older rate the region highly as a place forseniors.

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Neighborhood Conditions of Persons Age 55+

51%74.6

40.671.2

41.568.2

31.464.7

35.263.8

2560.5

35.358.8

0% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Positive ratings of neighborhood conditions by race

B

% black% non-black

accessible to groceries

convenient location

feels safe

good for physical activity

good housing conditions

good place for older people

accessible to green spaces

|| neighborhood perspectives

The majority of older adults in the countyare generally happy with their neighborhoods,including their neighbors and the accessibilityof amenities, such a grocery stores.

More than a third, however, don’t feel com-pletely safe in their neighborhood, and about 43percent say their neighborhood has some short-comings as a place for older adults to live.

These ratings are influenced by the race ofolder adults. African Americans are far lesslikely than whites to give their neighborhoodhigh marks for access to grocery stores, safety,housing conditions and other measures. Seniorsof all races who rent, those living alone and sen-iors with a high school education or less are alsomore likely to rate their neighborhoods lower.

Race is also a factor in seniors’ social inter-actions. African Americans are much less likelythan whites to know many or most of theirneighbors and talk to them at least once amonth. zx

lder adults tend to preferstaying in their homes as they age. In Al-legheny County, the rate of homeowner-ship among seniors is high and comparableto national rates—although much dependson the race and age of seniors.

More than 77 percent of all seniors aged 65-74years in Allegheny County own the home where theylive. Not surprisingly, homeownership drops to 60 per-cent for seniors 85 or older.

African Americans, however, are much more likelythan whites to rent, and the difference among races canbe striking, the countywide senior survey suggests. Morethan 87 percent of white seniors own their home com-pared to only 49 percent of African American seniors.

Housing conditions play an important role in deter-mining whether older adults can remain at home. Condi-tions that once were sufficient for them to live safely andcomfortably may no longer be suitable as their health de-clines and their level of disability increases.

Nearly 63 percent of older adults in the county as-sess the physical condition of their home as either excel-lent or very good. Fewer than 10 percent say they live inhomes where conditions are in poor or only fair condi-tion.

Some 60 percent of seniors under the age of 75share their home with their spouse, while 22 percent re-port living alone. That changes dramatically as mortalityand morbidity increases with age, with nearly 49 percentof adults aged 75 and older living alone.

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Race, again, is an influential factor. Fewer than40 percent of African American seniors in thecounty give their housing conditions positive rat-ings. By comparison, 65 percent of seniors who arewhite give the condition of their homes highmarks. Older African Americans are also far morelikely to live alone. zx

Home Ownership, Age 55+

non-black

black 49.3%

87.3%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Homeowner by race


onvenient transportationis an important factor in allowingolder adults to live comfortably andsafely at home. And whether it’s to goshopping or to visit the doctor, driv-ing themselves is still the transporta-

tion mode of choice among Allegheny County’solder adults.

More than 88 percent of county seniors have avalid driver license and they use it. More than eightin 10 older adults report driving themselves as theirfirst choice of getting to where they need to go, thesurvey suggests. Even 70 percent of those 75 orolder get behind the wheel to get around.

The most common second choice is gettingrides from relatives, friends and neighbors, followedby public transportation, and Access and other sen-ior citizen transit services.

About 16 percent of seniors report using publictransportation at least once a month. Those who doare much more likely to be African American. Morethan half of older African American adults use pub-lic transit monthly compared to only 12 percent ofwhites. And among those who take the bus or lightrail, eight in 10 report they are satisfied or very sat-isfied with the service. zx

C

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8

Public Transit Use and Satisfaction, Age 55+

0

20

40

60

80

100%

% uses public transit at least monthly

among users:% satisfied with public transit

among non-users: % says public transit is inconvenient

15.9

80.2 78.5

87.4

47.9 45.454

46.9

77.2

19.114.1 14

% of total% age 55–64% age 65–74% age 75+


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n many ways, the health of olderAllegheny County adults is in line with what isseen nationally, such as the rate of those whoneed help with routine or personal care. Oneglaring exception is being overweight or obese.

About three in four county seniors areeither one or the other, placing them at greater risk ofheart disease, stroke, diabetes and other serious condi-tions. Overall, 31.5 percent of older county adults areobese. More than 43 percent are considered overweightby their body mass index.

More troubling, obesity rates rise to 43 percentamong older African American adults, compared to30 percent among whites. Obesity rates are alsosignificantly higher among women of all races in thecounty than men. Obesity tends, however, to decreasewith age.

So do rates of depression among seniors. About 10percent of adults aged 55 and older show moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression with those symptomsbeing more prevalent among African Americans thanwhites, the countywide survey suggests. But depressionrates drop from 14 percent among adults aged 55 –64 to6.6 percent among seniors 75 years and older.

The lower rate of depression among the elderly is anational phenomenon. Reasons include waning stressas they are farther removed from when they workedand raised children. Older adults also adapt well to theconstraints they live under and tend to have a level of

equanimity about life and living that helps protectthem against conditions like severe depression.

|| happiness

Perhaps that also contributes to their relative hap-piness. Allegheny County seniors post a mean score ofeight on a 10-point happiness scale that, while similarto the national average, is favorably high.

Surprisingly, the data suggest older African Ameri-can adults in Allegheny County are happier thanwhites, despite generally doing less well on severalmeasures of well being. And older women are generallyhappier than men. zx

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Body Mass Indexof persons age 65+

all persons 65+

male

female

black

non-black

0% 10 20 30 40 50 60

31.5%43.4

25.350.3

3638.4

43.231.9

30.244.7

% obese% overweight


d

d



amily, friends and neighborsplay a critical role in enabling older adultsto live safely at home and avoid nursinghome or personal care home placementfor as long as possible, particularly seniorswith chronic illness and disability. But

forecasts show trouble on the horizon with the supplyof these essential caregivers growing short in AlleghenyCounty and across the nation.

More than one in five of these caregivers in thecounty are older adults themselves. Some informal care-givers help with personal care needs, such as eating,bathing and dressing. Some help with routine needs,such as shopping and everyday household chores. Somehelp with both.

The job is often burdensome to the caregivers whoperform it, and research suggests it poses a risk to theirhealth. In Allegheny County, high levels of stress arefound among older adults who are caregivers. Most af-

fected are those who help with both personal and rou-tine care needs, 45 percent of whom report moderate-to-high levels of stress. These caregivers spend morethan 35 hours a week on average helping others, surveydata show.

Many older adults in the county who don’tyet care for others expect to do so in coming years.Nearly half of those aged 55-64 who aren’t care-givers and 35 percent of 65-74 year olds believethey will be assuming that role in the future. Popu-lation forecasts suggest they will be needed.

|| caregiver availability

The demand for informal caregiving isquickly overtaking the capacity of younger genera-tions to provide it. Driving this phenomenon arethe demographic consequences of a large, agingbaby boomer population and the fact they raisedsignificantly fewer children to follow them.

One measure of care-giving capacity is the“dependency ratio” of the number of people avail-able to provide care and those who need it. In2010, the ratio was 6:1 in Allegheny County. By2050, it is projected to collapse to 3.6 caregiversfor every person in need of care. zx

F

Top 10 Caregiver Needs

balancing work, family responsibilities

managing emotional, physical stress

easy activities to do with care recipient

finding time for yourself or respite care

finding trustworthy paid help

where to access information, resources

managing challenging behaviors

keeping care recipient safe at home

specific training on the illness

explaining the need for flexbility at work

Top needs for caregivers age 55–64, by percent reporting a need:

0% 10 20 30 40

32.7%

26.7

26.3

24.8

24.5

19.1

19.1

16.6

20.7

20.9


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llegheny county’s olderadults are quite satisfied with theservices available from thecounty’s Department of HumanServices and a host of nonprofitsto help them remain safely inde-

pendent. They also give help themselves, reportinga rate of volunteering that, while slightly below thenational average for seniors, is still relatively high.

More than 16 percent of county seniors reporthaving used senior services in the past 12 months,

such as those offered by the Allegheny CountyArea Agency on Aging. Another seven percent,while they don’t use such services, say they’vearranged for others to use the services.

Most popular are the AAA-supported seniorcenters operated by a network of providers acrossthe county. Some 51 percent older adults who useservices report visiting one of the centers. Otherwidely used senior services include home healthcare and transportation. African Americans, partic-ularly African American women, use senior services

more frequently.More than 73 percent of those

who take advantage of senior serv-ices report being very satisfied withthe experience.

Some six in 10 older adults inthe county report helping others orgiving back to their community in avariety of other ways as volunteers.And they report spending an aver-age of nine hours a week to do so.Most often those hours are spentproviding transportation, raisingmoney for a favorite cause andhelping people with disabilities. zx

10

A

d

Motivations for Volunteering, Age 55+

0% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Top five reasons why people age 55+ volunteer, by percent "very important"

59.6%

59.9%

61.7%

62.9%

65.6%

it’s a way to give back

feel a personal responsibilityto help others

organization does good

it makes your life moresatisfying

make a difference to a causethat is important to you


ocial relationships amongAllegheny County older adults are gener-ally positive, and the social support thatcomes from their friends, family andothers is relatively high. But there arepockets of older adults who report deficits

in social health that raise concern.

For older adults, the benefits of quality social rela-tionships, networks and support can include better psy-chological well being and lower likelihood of disabilityand health-risk behaviors.

Warning signs of potential social health problemsare most apparent among older adults who have yet toreach retirement age. Adults aged 55-64 are more likely

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contributors

Richard Schulz, PhD, Director

The State of Aging in Allegheny County: October2014 was undertaken with support from Al-legheny County Department of Human Services,Area Agency on Aging and the United Way ofAllegheny County and prepared by the followingUCSUR staff:

Donald Musa, DPhScott Beach, PhDChristopher Briem, MPAJanet Schlarb, MARichard Schulz, PhD


Douglas Heuck, DirectorJeffery Fraser, Senior editorIsabel T. Orozco, MSW, Research coordinatorJulia Fraser, Research coordinator, staff writer

The State of Aging in Allegheny County: An OverviewReport design by Jennifer McNulty; data charts byJames Hilston; Photo on page 2 by Jim Judkis, allother images, iStockphoto.

d

Social Health, Age 55+Indicators of social health and social support by age

lacks companionship negative interactions

17.7%

7.3%

14.5%

25.5%

12.9%11.1%

0

5

10

15

20

25

30%

age 55–64age 65–74age 75+


than any other age group to lack companionship. And25 percent say they’ve had negative interactions withothers in the past month—by far the highest rate ofsuch encounters reported by older adults.

Older African American adults and seniors wholive alone are also among those who report the higherrates of social health deficits. For example, more than24 percent of African American seniors aged 65 years orolder report that they usually or always feel isolated,left out and lack companionship compared to 9.4 per-cent of whites. And seniors of all races who live aloneare twice as likely to have fewer than four close friendsthan those who live with someone else.

internet & social media

More and more Allegheny County older adults areusing the Internet, but they’re less connected throughsocial media than the rest of the nation, local and na-tional survey data suggest.

Some 56 percent of county seniors today use theInternet, which is slightly higher than national aver-ages and up from the 45 percent who used the Internetin 2011.

But they’ve been much slower to warm up to socialmedia. Some 25 percent of local seniors use socialmedia today compared to 16 percent three years ago.Yet, they are well behind U.S. seniors as a whole, 45percent of whom use Facebook to stay in touch withfriends and family. zx

University of Pittsburgh

University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR)

3343 Forbes Avenue

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260

ucsur.pitt.edu

resources

This overview, and the complete State of Aging in Allegheny County: October 2014report and survey data tables are available on the following websites:

• pittsburghtoday.org/stateofaging2014

• ucsur.pitt.edu/center-reports/november-2014-state-aging-allegheny-county

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the state of aging in allegheny county - an overview

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