I tend to view the term “older adult” through the lens of someone who reports on senior living providers and the residents they serve, as well as prospective residents they market to.
According to Where You Live Matters, the consumer site by the American Seniors Housing Association, most people move into senior living between age 75 and 84, with the average age of senior living residents being 84 and the “typical assisted living resident” being “an 87-year-old woman who needs help with two or three activities of daily living, such as dressing, bathing and medication management.”
Any mention of “older adult” somewhere catches my eye, given my work, and my mind starts thinking about people in their 80s. But I’ve learned over the years that “older adult” means different things to different people.
For instance, the AARP considers an “older American” to be anyone over 50. And the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging also defines the starting age for “older Americans” to be 50. In fact, the those polls end with participants at age 80.
It’s really quite jarring to me that someone who is 50 years old is considered by some to be “older” — although it is undeniable that 50-year-olds are older than some people — unless someone is running for president, apparently.
Many people expressed concern that 81-year-old President Joe Biden was too old to run for another term. He removed himself from the race on Sunday, and the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination now is a baby boomer and will be 60 by Election Day: Vice President Kamala Harris. (That’s right. She was born Oct. 20, 1964, which makes part of the Baby Boom, the generation born between 1946 and 1964. Some define the youngest baby boomers as Generation Jones.) With Harris, 59 is considered young. It’s all relative.
But according to Taco Bell, 59 still is four years past potential retirement. I almost fell off my chair when, earlier this month, I read about the fast food restaurant’s plans to open “an early retirement community for the old at heart” for two days in August.
​​”There’s a common misconception that retirement unlocks the life you’ve been waiting for. And while that may be true for some, we don’t think you should have to wait until 55 to live the life you’re craving,” Taco Bell US Chief Marketing Office Taylor Montgomery said in a press release.
Fifty-five?! OK, there are age-restricted communities where the minimum age for move-in starts at 55. But very few 55-year-olds are retired. According to the latest data from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, the average age of retirement in 2021 was 65 for men and 62 for women.
Maybe retired. But not necessarily “older.”
Lois A. Bowers is the editor of McKnight’s Senior Living. Read her other columns here. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at Lois_Bowers.
