Michigan is aging faster than the rest of the U.S. — here's why

It’s no secret that Americans are living longer. But behind that fact of longer lives is a bigger trend involving the nation's seniors, one that will reshape American culture. And in Michigan, it’s happening faster than almost anywhere, according to veteran demographer Kurt Metzger, retired founder of the prominent think tank called Data Driven Detroit.

Kurt Metzger of Pleasant Ridge is a veteran expert on population trends. 
Metzger, a former director of Wayne State University's Center for Urban Studies, said he came to a startling conclusion after crunching numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Michigan Department of Transportation and the University of Michigan's Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy.
First, he zeroed in on an unprecedented moment in the future, "when the seniors will outnumber the youngsters," Metzger said.
"It's a big deal — the first time in history," he said, that people aged 65 and over will outnumber those 17 and younger. That moment is what forecasters call "the cross-over," and nationwide it's expected to occur in 2035. But what startled Metzger was discovering that, in Michigan, it's to come a decade sooner -- in 2025.