Old as the hills: are Adirondack towns aging dangerously?

Another pressure point for Adirondack communities is their rapidly aging populations. The Adirondack Park Regional Assessment — released this month — made this prediction:

Park residents average just under 43 years of age, older than any state for median age. By 2020, only the west coast of Florida will exceed the Adirondacks as the oldest region in America.

The survey found a lot of texture within that picture. The most populous chunk of the Park — the Tri-lakes — now averages just 36-38 years old.

That’s a shade older than the New York state average, but those communities are faring fairly well population-wise, holding steady or even growing.

There’s a minor baby boom underway around the town of Essex, where locals just held a fundraiser for their collective daycare.

So there are glimmers of fresh demographic energy out there.

But Newcomb and Morehouse already have populations that average 50+, and a bunch of other towns are graying fast, averaging 47-49 years old. Those are dangerous horizons.

When most of your people are too old to have babies, you run the risk of, well, running out of babies.

These numbers raise a bunch of questions that Adirondack communities will have to start wrestling with:

-Are services in place to care for an increasingly aged society?

-Is there a way to begin recruiting new Adirondackers?

-Are jobs the answer? Better broadband access? What services or other enticements do young people need these days to lure them out of the cities and suburbs?

-With more residents on fixed incomes, how do we manage rising property taxes?

Here again from the Assessment:

The rising median age results in an increase in elderly residents who generally require more services than they produce. Volunteer-based emergency-service providers are having difficulty attracting younger members…

A growing exodus in the 20-35 year age grup creates other concerns. This important generational link is in decline and with it, a reduction in the infant and pre-school population.

This decrease is being offest by an increasing 50+ age group creating the illusion of a stable population in the park. Unless conditions are changed to retain and attract young adults, a decline in the park population is inevitable.

Tags: adirondacks