Growing Older, Getting Mellower, Feeling Good

Taking a step back from the dismal economy and housing bust, things apparently look pretty good to older Americans. A Pew Research Center poll and report on Growing Old in America finds people 65 and older feeling pretty good about themselves and their lives—better, in fact, than the views of old age held by younger Americans.

Of course, it may be hard to see an attractive bigger picture when your home is worth far less than it was two years ago, you can't find even part-time work and the dollars don't stretch as far as you want, regardless of what government statistics say about low rates of inflation.

But in longevity terms, Pew notes, a 65-year-old American today will live on average another 19 years. Anyone lucky enough to reach the age of 65 in the year 1900 would have had only 12 more years left. And in economic terms, the gains have been even more impressive. "In 1966, 28.5 percent of Americans ages 65 and older lived below the poverty line; in 2007, 9.7 percent did," the report says. "By contrast, current poverty rates for children and for adults ages 18-64 are little changed from the mid-1960s. As a result, the poverty rate for older Americans is now lower than that for children or for other adults."

There is mounting evidence, in fact, that today may be a relative high-water mark for older citizens. Look at the surge of Baby Boomers getting ready to leave full-time work and begin collecting Social Security and Medicare benefits. They literally will break the bank, and the back, of these entitlement programs. Sure, health reforms could lead to better care at lower cost. But this will not happen overnight and it's not going to happen at all without some pain.

[See Social Security, Medicare Busts Move Closer.]

But for now, nearly half of the people aged 75 and up say their lives have turned out better than they expected, Pew says, versus only five percent who feel they've been dealt a worse hand than they hoped. This positive tilt is greater than for any other age group, Pew reports, and it gets higher as people get older. People also reported feeling younger than their actual age as they get older. Among people aged 18 to 29, a quarter felt younger than their age and a quarter felt older (the other half said they felt their age). But Pew says among people aged 65 and up, 60 percent said they felt younger than their age and only 3 percent said they felt older.

[See 4 Ways Retirees Can Enrich Their Life (And the Lives of Others).]

Pew says the most intriguing finding of its research is that the generation gap has returned in a pronounced way. Now, researchers acknowledge that there is no standard definition of the generation gap and that the phrase might carry different meanings today than in past polls. But 79 percent of the people polled earlier this year said there was a generation gap versus only 60 percent in a 1979 survey and 74 percent in 1969. "The most common explanation offered by respondents of all ages has to do with differences in morality, values and work ethic," Pew says. "Relatively few cite differences in political outlook or in uses of technology."

Here are how different age groups see the challenges and benefits of aging:

Reader Comments Read all comments (1)

Add Your Thoughts

Comment Name State Select One AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY International Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Incorrect please try again

Enter the words above: Enter the numbers you hear:

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.