Maps

Mapped: Retirement-Age Workers by U.S. State

Published

1 month ago

October 25, 2024

Kayla Zhu

Graphics/Design:

Joyce Ma

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

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Retirement-Age Adults (65 and Older) Still Working By State

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More and more older adults in the U.S. are choosing to continue to work well into their retirement years.

Overall growth in the 65 and older population, higher cost of living, and various social factors have led to a growing share of older adults in the American workforce.

This map shows the percentage of U.S. adults 65 and older who are still working by state using figures from a LendingTree analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

States With the Highest Share of Retirement-Age Workers

Below, we show the percentage of adults 65 and older in each state that are still working.

State	Share of working retirement-age adults
New Jersey	33.8%
North Dakota	32.3%
Maryland	31.2%
New Hampshire	30.9%
Connecticut	30.3%
New York	29.3%
Hawaii	28.3%
Vermont	27.9%
Colorado	27.3%
Delaware	27.2%
Utah	26.4%
Nevada	25.7%
Nebraska	25.6%
Rhode Island	25.6%
California	25.2%
Alaska	24.9%
Arkansas	24.8%
Pennsylvania	24.6%
Montana	24.2%
Massachusetts	24.0%
Texas	23.9%
South Dakota	23.8%
Georgia	23.6%
Minnesota	23.4%
Virginia	23.4%
Indiana	23.0%
Maine	22.8%
Wyoming	22.8%
Louisiana	22.5%
New Mexico	22.5%
Washington	22.4%
Idaho	22.0%
Illinois	22.0%
Oregon	21.5%
Ohio	21.1%
Oklahoma	20.8%
North Carolina	20.6%
Alabama	20.5%
Arizona	20.4%
Wisconsin	20.2%
Tennessee	19.6%
Mississippi	19.1%
Kansas	18.6%
South Carolina	18.6%
Kentucky	18.5%
Florida	18.3%
District of Columbia	17.8%
Iowa	17.2%
Michigan	17.0%
Missouri	15.8%
West Virginia	15.7%

About 22% of American adults 65 and older continue to work in 2024. About a quarter of working retirement-age adults are self-employed, according to census data.

Some older workers choose to remain employed for a sense of purpose, identity, or to keep their routine intact. Additionally, older adults today tend to be healthier overall compared to the past, allowing them to remain in the workforce longer.

For others, this decision came out of financial necessity. According to the Federal Reserve, in 2022 only 51% of American adults 65 to 74 had a retirement account. For adults 75 and older, this figure was even lower, at 42%.

The Northeast region tends to have higher rates of retirement-age adults still working, with every single state all above the national average of 22%.

New Jersey saw the highest share of working adults over the age of 65 in 2024, and the largest two-year increase. In March 2022, 20.3% of Americans 65 and older were employed in New Jersey. Two years later, in March 2024, this figure had risen to 33.8%.