Graying of American Voters: One of Top Ten Demographic Trends Affecting Policies & Politics

A new research project on demographics of the U.S., with funding from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, brings together the Center for American Progress, the American Enterprise Institute, and demographer William H. Frey of the Brookings Institution.   The project goals are:

• To document and analyze the challenges to democracy posed by the rapid demographic evolution from the 1970s to 2060
• To project the race-ethnic composition of every state to 2060, which has not been done for 20 years
• To promote a wide-ranging and bipartisan discussion of America’s demographic future and what it portends for the nation’s political parties and policy

The team’s first report identifies a Top Ten list of demographic factors likely to impact the future of both policy-decisions and politics, including #6 on the “Graying of America.”  Graphics illustrate each of the projections, including this one on aging.

For more complete results, see The States of Change: Demographics and Democracy, 1974 to 2060.

Thanks to GW Law Professor Naomi Cahn for sending this report! The statistics should  be useful for generating student discussion in a wide range of courses.