Fresno’s getting older and grayer. These neighborhoods have the most senior citizens

Fresno County’s population of senior citizens grew at a rapid clip during the decade of the 2010s, far outpacing the overall increase in population over the 10-year period.

New data released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau from the 2020 Census reveals that the number of residents in Fresno County ages 65 and older climbed by almost 40,000 – an increase of nearly 43% over the decade. The county had an estimated 133,322 senior citizens in the 2020 Census, compared to 93,421 in 2010. Countywide, the overall population grew by 8.4%.

The changes were similarly striking within the city of Fresno, where the overall population grew just under 10% between 2010 and 2020. But the senior population increased almost five times faster, rising by more than 46%. About one out of every eight residents in the city were age 65 and older by 2020.

An analysis of age by census tract across Fresno County shows that the highest concentrations of senior citizens are generally in areas of northwest and northeast Fresno as well as more rural eastern areas of the county.

The census data shows that the median age — the midrange at which half of residents are older and half are younger — in Fresno County climbed from 30.6 years in 2010 to 33.3 years by 2020. In the city of Fresno over the same period, the median increased from 29.3 years to 32.2 years.

The figures for Fresno and Fresno County reflect what’s happening nationwide as the “Baby Boomer” generation — the post-World War II generation of people born between 1946 and 1964 —– grows older. Nationwide, the proportion of senior citizens over the age of 65 increased by 38.6% between 2010 and 2020 – slower than in either Fresno County or the city of Fresno.

“The older population has been growing for the past 100 years but the decade before 2020 saw its fastest increase since 1880 to 1890,” the Census Bureau reported this week. “The older population also grew five times faster than the total population”

Not only were older people getting even older in the U.S., the nation’s population in 2020 “had fewer children under age 5 than in 2010 or 2000,” the agency reported.

Fresno is still younger than almost all California counties

Still, as significant as the pace of aging in Fresno County appears at first glance, the percentages of senior citizens in Fresno County and nearby counties in the central San Joaquin Valley as a share of the overall population are among the lowest among California’s 58 counties:

• Kings County: 10.6% of residents age 65 or older, 58th out of 58 counties. The median age in the county was 32.9 years, 55th out of 58 counties.

• Kern County: 11.8%, 57th out of 58 counties; median age 32.8 years, 56th out of 58 counties.

• Merced County: 11.9%, 56th out of 58 counties; median age 32.0 years, 58th out of 58 counties.

• Tulare County: 12.2%, 55th out of 58 counties; median age 32.3 years, 57th out of 58 counties.

• Fresno County: 13.2%, 53rd out of 58 counties; median age 33.3 years, 53rd out of 58 counties.

• Madera County: 14.7%, 41st out of 58 counties; median age 35.0 years, 49th out of 58 counties.

The largest proportion of senior citizens as a percentage of total population in California was 30.9% in Sierra County, a sparsely-peopled area along the California-Nevada border north of Lake Tahoe and east of Reno. That’s more than double the senior percentage in any of the central San Joaquin Valley counties. Sierra County also had the highest median age of any California county at 53.9 years.

Where are Fresno County’s highest concentrations of seniors?

The largest concentrations of senior citizens, as a percentage of the overall population, are focused largely in pockets of northwest and northeast Fresno, as well as across less densely populated areas across eastern Fresno County.

The census tract with the county’s highest proportion of senior citizens is Tract 14.08, a neighborhood in southeast Fresno generally bounded by Chestnut, Butler and Peach avenues and the Braley Canal that includes not only Fresno Pacific University but also a large senior citizens housing project. There, senior citizens represent more than 46% of the population. That’s the largest percentage among 225 census tracts countywide.

After that, the tracts with the largest proportions of seniors are:

• Tract 43.01, a northwest Fresno neighborhood north of Herndon Avenue along the San Joaquin River and generally between Valentine and West avenues, where 35.2% of the population is over age 65.

• Tract 43.02 in northwest Fresno, immediately south of 43.01 and bounded by Herndon, Marks, Fruit and Bullard avenues, where seniors are 33.9% of the population.

• Tract 55.27 in northeast Fresno, generally bounded by Nees, Millbrook, Maple and Herndon avenues, where seniors are 33.5% of the population.

• Tract 43.03 in northwest Fresno bounded by Bullard, Marks, Fruit and Shaw avenues, where seniors are 32.7% of the population.

• Tract 64.09, a sprawling tract in the Sierra Nevada east of Fresno that includes both Shaver and Huntington lakes, where seniors are 29.8% of the population.

• Tract 45.06 in northwest Fresno bounded by Shaw, Bullard, Maroa and Fruit avenues where seniors are 28.3% of the population.

The growth in the senior-age population in Fresno was an impetus for the city to purchase a large former grocery store site on North Blackstone Avenue to be developed as the city’s first dedicated senior service center.

The former Vons, which closed in mid-2015, was later occupied by the short-lived Asia Supermarket, which was open for less than a year before it closed in 2016. Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said the building, which amounts to almost 40,600 square feet, will be demolished to make way for the new senior center.

“For more than a decade, members of our senior community have pleaded with city officials for a dedicated senior center for them to enjoy,” Dyer said when the $6.26 million purchase was announced in July 2022.

When the Fresno City Council approved the property purchase last year, an environmental analysis included not only a 29,000-square-foot senior center, but also about 33,000 square feet for development of 70 affordable housing units for senior citizens, both on the site of the former grocery store.