Median Age

West Virginia has stayed ahead of Florida as home to the nation's oldest population - though not by much. According to census numbers released yesterday, the median age of residents of West Virginia is 38.1 years, the oldest in the nation for the second consecutive year. Florida is second oldest at 38 years, with Pennsylvania third at 37.3 years. In each state, half the residents are older and half younger than the median figure. As has been the case for several years, Utah has the youngest median age - 26.9.

HARPER'S INDEX Some offbeat statistical data compiled by the staff of Harper's Magazine: Estimated number of Americans who had foreclosure proceedings initiated against them in 1991: 488,800. Chances that a white American earning less than $28,000 per year will be denied a mortgage: 1 in 4.3. Chances that a black American earning more than $42,000 per year will be denied a mortgage: 1 in 4.7. Percentage of Americans who believe that news coverage of the economy has had a "negative effect" on it: 49. Median age of a new mother in 1940: 23.2.

With little fanfare and less analysis, America recently passed another milestone. It turned 32. Or so says the Census Bureau, which has just announced that, as of last July 1, the population's median age reached 32.1 years. For the first time in its history, in other words, there are as many Americans above 32 as below. That puts the nation in a pretty exclusive club - up there with Sweden (median age 37.5) and West Germany (median age 37.7). The developing nations, by contrast, tend to be much younger: Kenya's median age is 19.2, and Mexico's is 22.7.

LOWERING STRESS. Money may not buy happiness, but a study suggests that it certainly can reduce stress. Analyzing the results of a Harris poll, Sheldon Cohen, a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University, found that stress tended to decrease as age and household income increased. "The people who seem to be best off are in the $45,000- to $50,000-a-year range," Cohen says. LOWERING BLOOD PRESSURE. Eating potassium-rich fresh fruits and vegetables may prevent or lower high blood pressure.

New Jersey's population is growing grayer, more unmarried partners are living together, and an increasing number of residents identify as Mexican or Asian Indian. These were just a few snapshots revealed in the latest U.S. Census information, released Thursday. Some of the most striking changes involve the growth of ethnic groups, which has helped fuel the increase in the region's diversity. Camden County College, for example, offers an "accent reduction" course in English, and the school just began offering a basic English class for continuing education.

Pennsylvania is not just a state with lots of elderly people. It's a state with lots of VERY old people, a new Census Bureau report said. Underscoring the long-term trend of an aging population, Pennsylvania's fastest-growing group is residents ages 85 and older, the Census report released today said. Pennsylvania saw the number of people in the oldest category jump 31 percent between April 1990 and July 1998, the report said. In contrast, the state's population of people ages 18-24 dropped 17 percent during the same period.

American women are postponing marriage longer than ever before, tying the knot later than even their great-great grandmothers of the 1890s, the Census Bureau reported yesterday. The typical first-time bride is 23.3 years old when she goes to the altar, the highest median age for women to marry since the government started keeping statistics. And the median age of 25.5 for their bridegrooms hasn't been topped since 1900, according to the bureau. The study, "Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1985," also appeared to contain some favorable news for marriage-minded women, who were told in a heavily publicized Yale University study earlier this year that their chances of ever marrying were only 20 percent if they were still single at 30. Among adults ages 25 to 34, the bureau said, there were 119 unmarried women for every 100 unmarried men. For young adults ages 15 to 24, there were 112 unarried women for every 100 unmarried men. At age 35, unmarried women started to outnumber unmarried men. For adults between 35 and 44 years, there were 84 men for every 100 women.

While Pennsylvania's overall population grew hardly at all between 1980 and 1990, the state's older population grew dramatically. During the decade, the number of Pennsylvanians 65 years of age and older grew by more than 298,000 - a 19 percent gain, according to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau scheduled for release today. The greatest growth among older residents was among what demographers call the "old old" - those 85 years of age and older. That group increased 32 percent between 1980 and 1990, according to census figures.

Simply put, in the years ahead, there won't be enough younger workers to go around. So employers will have to depend more on older workers to fill the available jobs. Experts predict a bulge of aging baby boomers, coupled with slower growth of the population and total labor force. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Between 1996 and 2006, the fastest-growing segment of the American work force will be aged 55 to 64. In 1996, the median age of workers nationwide was 38. By 2006, the median age will be 41. The gap between population growth and job growth is growing.

REDISCOVERING AMERICA America's love affair with Japanese cars may be waning. A survey by Integrated Automotive Resources of more than 5,300 U.S. motorists looking for a new car during the first three months of this year found that "a startling" 32 percent of those who owned a Japanese car planned to replace it with a domestic model. The consulting firm found the disloyalty rate ranged from 47 percent of Mitsubishi owners to 20 percent of those who owned Hondas, Investor's Daily reports.

TV shows live by the numbers and die by the numbers. At the moment, American Idol is being gashed with the Nielsen saber. Viewership for the Fox singing contest is down just more than 20 percent from last year at this time, and ratings in the adult demographic (18 to 49 years old) have dropped an alarming 33 percent. The best-case scenario for the network is that this is just a temporary aberration, that fans over time have grown weary of the audition stage, which serves as a long, pointless overture to the season, and that they will return once the real competition begins March 1. "I think American Idol 's slipping numbers reflect fatigue, especially among more engaged, savvy viewers, because the show is incredibly boring this year," Andy Dehnart, editor of the website realityblurred.com, says via e-mail.

Pennsylvanians are both marrying and divorcing at a lower rate than people in most of the rest of the country, a new U.S. Census Bureau report says. It's a quality they share with many men and women in the Northeastern United States. New Jersey was the only state with a lower rate for marriage and divorce for both men and women. The state's residents marry later, a choice viewed as more likely to make marriages last longer. Sociologists have found that factors such as age, income, religion, and education can play key roles in the timing and success of marriage.

WASHINGTON - Baby boomers say wrinkles aren't so bad and they're not that worried about dying. Just don't call them old. The generation that once powered a youth movement isn't ready to symbolize the aging of America, even as its first members are becoming eligible for Medicare. A new poll finds three-quarters of all baby boomers still consider themselves middle-aged or younger. That includes most of the boomers who are ages 57 to 65. Younger adults call 60 the start of old age, but baby boomers are pushing that number back, according to the Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll.

New Jersey's population is growing grayer, more unmarried partners are living together, and an increasing number of residents identify as Mexican or Asian Indian. These were just a few snapshots revealed in the latest U.S. Census information, released Thursday. Some of the most striking changes involve the growth of ethnic groups, which has helped fuel the increase in the region's diversity. Camden County College, for example, offers an "accent reduction" course in English, and the school just began offering a basic English class for continuing education.

The city is trending younger as the suburbs quickly grow older. There are fewer young children in the region. And Pennsylvania remains one of the grayest states. Those were some of the snapshots to emerge in new census data to be released Thursday. That the state shows signs of aging didn't surprise researchers or other officials who work daily with an older population. "It is something we absolutely are seeing," said Wanda Stonebraker, director the Chester County Department of Aging Services, which provides meals, medical assistance, and transportation for seniors.

In the race among granny states, Pennsylvania has cemented its place as third oldest in the nation, according to new census data. The flip-flop when the Keystone State first dropped from second place went largely unnoticed. During the election last year, national news reports continued to refer to Pennsylvania as second oldest, citing the 2000 census. But for the fifth year in a row, about 15 percent of Pennsylvania's population was 65 or older last year, behind Florida's 17 percent and West Virginia's nearly 16 percent, population estimates released last week show.

It's easy to be impressed by the China we've seen during the Olympics - the glittering, modern buildings; the futuristic maglev trains; the epic public works projects. On the surface, China has the physical capital of a rising world power. But the structure of China's human capital presents a very different picture. Over the next 40 years, China is headed for intense and rapid demographic change: Between now and 2050, China's population will shrink and become very, very old. There are no easy ways to manage this catastrophic problem.

At Camden's Richard Fetters school building, built while Ulysses S. Grant was president and before Thomas A. Edison invented the incandescent lightbulb, children of the Lanning Square community have made do in classrooms tiny by today's standards. The layout is warren-like. Students and teachers walk through one classroom to get to another. In hot weather, the rooms are stifling. In 2007, the cold made pipes burst. The year before, severe weather and leaky pipes caused major damage to the gym floor.

For the first time in 150 years, households headed by single adults and unmarried couples now outnumber married-couple families. In 1960, married-couple households represented more than 78 percent of American households. As late as 2000, married couples were 52 percent of all households. But in 2005, according to the recently released American Community Survey, households with a married couple at their core made up less than 50 percent of all households. That's a psychologically significant number, of course.

Three acts did all things emo in less than three hours Saturday night at the Theatre of Living Arts. Rocky Votolato strummed an excellent set of hookless gloom, highlighted by the title track of Suicide Medicine. Acoustic emo became the new edgy folk as the Seattle singer-songwriter covered Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. " Recover, out of Austin, brought a metal mood, complete with flying hair, pelvic thrusts and pre-lingual patter. The screamo quartet of 18-year-olds erased the line between rock that really rocks and rock that's really bad. Their 30-minute set ran a half-hour too long.