We've been hearing for years that eventually the "Baby Boomer" population will catch up and we will have a large percentage of our overall U.S. population 65 years of age or older. Some of these predictions are based on the large numbers of the population born around the same time – "Baby Boomers"; others are based on proposals that our continuing medical advances in health care are helping individuals live longer. And, according to a 2010 Census Report Brief, we're starting to see the first signs of this coming true. In 2010, not only was the population 65 and older at it's highest number yet, but it also increased at a faster rate than that of the entire population between 2000 and 2010.
You can read full details in the Census Brief linked here (http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-09.pdf). To see a fascinating visual representation of the growth of this population, check out this PowerPoint (http://2010.census.gov/news/pdf/20111130_slides.pdf).