Each year on August 21, there are various events and activities held across the United States in recognition of National Senior Citizens Day.
For all they have achieved throughout life and for all they continue to accomplish, we owe older citizens our thanks and a heartfelt salute. We can best demonstrate our gratitude and esteem by making sure that our communities are good places in which to mature and grow older — places in which older people can participate to the fullest and can find the encouragement, acceptance, assistance, and services they need to continue to lead lives of independence and dignity. ~ President Ronald Reagan – August 19, 1988 Proclamation 5847
By the time you’re eighty years old you’ve learned everything. You only have to remember it.” George Burns
- Senior Citizens Are More Likely to Vote. Senior citizens make up the majority of registered voters. (Per US News). 61 percent of citizens age 65 and older voted in the November 2010 election; 54 percent) of those ages 55 to 64 also cast a ballot; 37 percent of 25- to 44-year-olds voted; Only 21% of voters ages 18 to 25 voted
- Poverty Is Still a Serious Issue for Senior Citizens. Over 16% of seniors live in poverty.
- Senior Citizens Still Have Sex. At least 73% of all senior citizens are still sexually active and not always with their spouses and partners. The elderly are also just as likely to engage in experimental sexual practices as any other age group.
- Senior Citizens are Tech Savvy. More than 40% of seniors have computer access and are active online. About 15 million Facebook users are 65 and older.
- There are 10,000 baby boomers in the United States turning 65 every day.
- In 2015 there were already 55,000 Americans over age 100, and by 2050 the number of centenarians will reach 600,000—roughly the population of the entire state of Vermont!
- There are 72 men for every 100 women in the age group ‘above 65 years’ and there are 45 men per 100 women in the age group ‘above 85 years.’
- Seniors account for 40 percent of all prescriptions although they form only 15 percent of the population.
- Older people are more prone to loneliness and depression and have a higher rate of suicide.
- Sophocles was 89 when he wrote Oedipus at Colonus, one of his dramatic
masterpieces. - On the day of his death, at the age of 78, Galileo was said to be planning a new
kind of clock that would tell time—in minutes and seconds, not just hours—using
a pendulum swing instead of movement of water or sand. - Isaac Newton, better known for his scientific achievements, became a scourge of
counterfeiters as the Warden of the Royal Mint, a position he held until his death
in his mid-80s. - Benjamin Franklin only retired from public service when he was 82.
- Susan B. Anthony was past 80 when she formed the International Woman
Suffrage Alliance. - George Bernard Shaw was working on his last play, Why She Would Not, when
he was 94. - Mary Baker Eddy was 86 when she founded the Christian Science Monitor
newspaper. - Alexander Graham Bell was 75 when he received a patent for his work on a
hydrofoil boat. - Grandma Moses received her last commission as an artist when she was 99.
- In America, seniors use more internet than anyone else. Seniors are the fastest growing group of consumers buying new computers and logging time online.
- According to data compiled by the Social Security Administration, a man reaching age 65 today can expect to live, on average, until age 84.3. A woman turning age 65 today can expect to live 86.6.
- People over 75 years old visit the doctor 3 times more often than people 22 to 44 years old.
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