SHREVEPORT – With Americans living longer and having fewer children, aging of the population is to be expected.

But according to a study conducted by LSUS’s Center for Business and Economic Research, Louisiana is aging faster than the nation overall.

The median age of the Louisiana population increased 11 years to 38.4 from 1980-2024, while the U.S. population overall increased to 9.3 years to 39.1 years in the same time period.

Historical data was collected from previous U.S. Census surveys with the latest numbers coming from the Vintage 2024 Population Estimates.

While Louisiana’s population remains younger right now, CBER director Douglas White said the state is on pace to surpass that national median.

“I attribute Louisiana’s pace of aging to three things – we’re living longer, we’re not having as many children, and the state is losing population,” White said. “People that leave or move around tend to be on the younger side.

“It’s like there’s three perfect storms that are causing this impact on aging.”

White added that younger populations tend to drive innovation and entrepreneurship.

“People talk about four percent economic growth in the 1980s, and part of that was having a bunch of dynamic and young people – we have less of those now,” White said. “People ask me if I could change just one thing about Shreveport or Louisiana, what would it be?

“I always say I’d increase our population of people ages 25-45. Those are the people who create businesses, take chances and start families.”

Louisiana parishes with urban population centers tend to be younger than their rural counterparts.

Bossier Parish (37.2 median age) is one of the younger parishes while Caddo Parish (39.9 median age) checks in above the state and national average.

But Bossier Parish sported a robust 4.8 children (ages 0-18) per senior (65 and older) in 1980, a ratio that has fallen to just 1.5 children per senior in 2024.

Caddo Parish’s ratio is 1.2 in 2024 down from 2.6 in 1980.

“There are places in Louisiana that had three and four children for every one senior in 1980, and now it’s the same number or even more seniors in some parishes,” White said. “This kind of population demographic affects everything from economic growth to healthcare and education.”

Ten Louisiana parishes have more seniors than children with five of those parishes (Claiborne, Union, Jackson, East Carroll and Tensas) being in North Louisiana.

Oddly enough, Lincoln Parish (which borders the first three parishes listed above) is the youngest parish in the state with a median age of 28.7.

“Without a doubt, some of the rural parishes are older, and they tend to have less access to medical care,” White said. “Rural populations that are older are having to travel further for hospital care or maybe even doctor care.

“And if there are fewer young people or seniors with no children who live close, who is driving them to these appointments if they can’t drive themselves?”

Tensas Parish is the oldest in the state with a median age of 48.8. It’s also the first parish in the state to not have any high schools that play 11-man football after chronically small rosters forced Tensas Parish High to disband the sport this year.

School consolidations or closures are another visible local effect with parishes like Red River condensing to just one public high school in the past decade.

In Shreveport, two elementary schools (Sunset Acres and Werner Park) were closed after the 2023-24 academic school year.

On a national level, one effect of an aging population is on Social Security viability.

The trust funds that partially support the national program may not be able to offer full benefits by 2034 because fewer people are paying into a system that’s supporting a growing number of seniors.

“We’re slowly getting toward the end of Baby Boomers who are of working age, and there aren’t as many Gen X people coming behind them,” White said. “Fewer people are paying into a system that needs money.”

Want to learn more about this report and census data in general? Visit White on Sept. 9 as part of LSUS’s Talks on Tap series hosted by Great Raft Brewing.

For the full report, visit the CBER website.

White added that U.S. Census data makes studies like this possible, and while the Decennial Census (every 10 years) isn’t in danger, resourcing and staffing cuts at the Bureau of Labor Statistics could impact data accuracy and types of data collected in the long run.

“It’s frightening to think about that because all of these surveys inform decisions throughout the government and communities that account for trillions of dollars,” White said. “We can spend a little more to get better results, which is not to imply that the results aren’t good.

“But even better results would help to allocate funds in a more efficient manner.”