The U.S. Census Bureau released a special report showing that the number of Americans aged 100 or older increased by 50% between 2010 and 2020, rising from 53,364 to 80,139. Despite this growth, centenarians still made up only about two out of every 10,000 people in the country in 2020.
The report, titled “Centenarians: 2020,” analyzed data from the 2020 Census and provided details on age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, living arrangements, and geographic distribution for centenarians. The study also compared centenarians to other older age groups to highlight how they differ.
In terms of gender distribution, women continued to make up the majority of centenarians at nearly 79% in 2020. However, this represented a slight decrease from a decade earlier when almost 83% were female. The male centenarian population grew more rapidly over the ten-year period—an increase of more than 85%, compared with about a 43% rise among females.
The racial makeup of centenarians became somewhat more diverse during the decade. There was an approximate eight percentage-point decline in those identifying as White alone—a change similar to what was observed among other older adults but less pronounced than among those under age 65. The proportion of Black or African American alone centenarians fell from just over 12% in 2010 to about 10% in 2020.
Geographically, the Northeast had the highest concentration of centenarians at over three per every ten thousand people. Hawaii led all states with more than four centenarians per ten thousand residents; Puerto Rico had a similar ratio. No state had fewer than one per ten thousand.
Patterns related to living arrangements showed that most female centenarians lived either alone or in group settings such as nursing homes—about two-thirds did so—while half of male centenarians lived similarly. Women were also twice as likely as men to reside in nursing homes (27.6% versus 14.2%). In contrast, nearly half of male centenarians lived with others in a household compared with roughly one-third of their female counterparts.
There were notable differences across racial and ethnic groups regarding living situations. Centenarian Hispanics or Latinos, Asians alone, and individuals classified as “All Other Races” were each much more likely (over 60%) to live with others in a household setting than White alone not Hispanic individuals (less than 35%). Black or African American alone centenarians fell between these groups.
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