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So far in this report, U.S. Census data have shown that the population in Adirondack Park Towns grew more than did New York State’s, though it lagged behind most other similar rural areas. While these comparisons to state and national trends are useful, they do not tell the full story about what’s happening inside Adirondack population trends from 1970 to 2020.
There are a number of questions that course through Adirondack political debates about population losses or gains. One of the best tools to investigate and answer these questions is through an analysis of different age groups that tracks their experiences decade after decade as they age. This kind of age group analysis of the Adirondack population has never been done before.
There are many questions about population trends in the Adirondack Park that age group analysis can address. Has the Adirondacks been losing its young people? Is the experience of young people in the Adirondacks different from that in other rural areas? How many young people chose to stay in the Adirondacks or moved here? Is the number of young people that the Adirondacks retains or recruits similar to or different from that in other rural areas?
Table 19: The Six Age Groups
| Area Year Range | Age Group Name |
|---|---|
| 1936–1945 | Pre-Baby Boomers |
| 1946–1955 | Classic Baby Boomers |
| 1956–1965 | Late Baby Boomers |
| 1966–1975 | Generation X |
| 1976–1985 | Pre-Millennials |
| 1986–1995 | Millenials |
Other important questions include: Are young families leaving the Adirondacks? Is the experience of young families in the Adirondacks different from that in other rural areas? Are career age people between 35 to 55 years old moving to the Adirondacks? Are career age people moving to other rural areas? Is the Adirondack Park recruiting retirees or exporting them? Are retirees moving to other rural areas?
These questions can be answered by tracking the experiences of different age groups in a region as they are born, finish school, go off to college or the military, start working, raise families, settle into middle age, and retire.
On the following pages we separate the population of the Adirondacks, New York, the U.S., and Rural America into six groups based on their birth years. The first age group is composed of people born between 1936 and 1945. The last cohort comprises people born between 1986 and 1995. We have assigned each age group a commonly used nickname for ease of reference in the discussion that follows; see Table 19 on the left.
We examine the population of each age group at the end of each decade, from 1970 to 2020. For example, when we first meet them in 1970, the Pre-Baby Boom age group is 25 to 34 years old and focused on starting careers and families. By 1990, they are settling into middle age and by 2020 they have earned the title “seniors.” In each decade, some people in this age group die or move away and are “lost” to the group. Meanwhile, some new people of that age move into the region and as such are “recruited” to that area’s age group. Tables 20 to 25 on the following pages show these population changes, both gains and losses, in raw numbers for each of the six age groups for each of the nine geographical areas we’ve been comparing in this report. ❑