Sumter home to oldest US residents
The Villages gives county the highest median age at 67.8
As Jeff Kahn grew older, he felt that Fort Lauderdale — his hometown for more than three decades — was no longer right for him. Too congested. Too many young people. Too much hustle and bustle.
So last year, Kahn — who turns 70 next month — did what thousands of other retirees his age do every year: He moved to The Villages, the sprawling retirement community 50 miles northwest of Orlando.
“When I first pulled into The Villages and went into the center square, I said to myself: ‘I’m home,’” said Kahn, who now plays pickleball daily. “The people were just nice and friendly. They were my age. And the whole comfort zone was there for me.”
Now, thanks to Kahn and other retirees his age who make their homes in the Sumter County portion of The Villages, the county has the highest median age, 67.8, in the U.S. for counties with populations of 20,000 or more, according to newly released Census Bureau population estimates for 2018.
Sumter is far older than its neighboring Central Florida counties, according to the data. Orange’s median age is 35.3; Osceola 36.2; Seminole 39.2; and Lake 47.2.
And it’s almost a sure thing that Sumter will remain at the top of the geriatric list for decades to come, as The Villages continues to explode southward into the rural city of
Wildwood.
Including homes in Lake and Marion counties, The Villages already has a total population that tops 125,000. In April, the Census Bureau said The Villages is the fastest-growing metro area in the U.S., with growth of almost 38 percent since 2010.
Much of the new development is planned for Sumter County.
Nearly 50,000 new homes and townhouses are planned to be built over the next three decades in the new Villages of Southern Oaks development spread across 13,800 acres north and south of Florida’s Turnpike and east of U.S. Highway 301 in Wildwood, according to city officials.
When built out, the additional development will double today’s 46,526 residential units in the Sumter County portion of The Villages, county officials said. Sumter’s total population today is 128,754 residents, according to 2018 estimates by the Census Bureau. A good chunk of those are Villagers.
“In Sumter County, we’re still a very rural county but with a northeastern corner that is now a metropolitan area made up of The Villages,” said County Commissioner Doug Gilpin, 62.
Having such a high concentration of retirees in the county — with many more to come — is a good thing, Gilpin said.
Many retirees from The Villages have high disposable incomes and are eager to shop and dine, thereby drawing in more commercial growth into Sumter, he said.
“That’s a big advantage, because it means the employment opportunities are big,” he said.
Terri Alderman, who described herself as older than 55 but younger than 67, moved in May into the Sumter portion of The Villages from Moultrie, Ga.
She has lived in Tampa and Atlanta. Like others who have relocated, she got tired of battling traffic congestion and a fast-paced, frenetic lifestyle. She wanted a more relaxed atmosphere and a community that offered activities for people her age.
“People here [in The Villages] are not going to sit around and do nothing,” Alderman said. “And that’s a big part of why they move here, and why they want to live here….It’s so much less stressful and there are hundreds of clubs.”
As The Villages has grown, so has Sumter’s median age, which is up almost years since 2010, when it was 62.9. But it’s not just Sumter that has gotten older.
The new census report also points out that Floridians on average are getting older, as today’s median age statewide in 2018 was 42.2, up from the actual median age in 2010.
That’s in line with a national trend that saw the median age increase to 38.2 in 2018 from 37.2 in 2010. Driving the uptick, the 65-and-older group grew by 30% over the past eight years.
Meanwhile, the under-18 population group nationwide decreased by 1.1% over the same period, figures show.
In Florida, the youngest county is Leon, where Tallahassee and Florida State University are located, with a median age of 31.2. In the U.S., the county with the lowest median age of all 3,142 counties is Madison County, Idaho.
About 2,300 miles to the southwest, Nancy Deichman, a RE/MAX Premier Royalty broker in The Villages, has watched Sumter County’s population of older residents swell over the past decade.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Deichman said when hearing that Sumter has the highest median age in the U.S. “They are coming into The Villages from out of the area. And they are not only buying Florida and the climate. But they are buying the lifestyle. ….There is so much to do here that they feel that they’ve moved into a ‘retirement Disney World.’”
And more new residents are on the way.
Kahn, who unlike many of his fellow Villagers still works, helps prospective newcomers find homes in the retiree haven as a broker’s associate with RE/ MAX Premier. Many are in their late 60s and early 70s.
“I see them and speak to them daily,” he said.