Don Moon gets ready to play a card during a euchre tournament Friday afternoon at the Marion-Grant County Senior Center. Elaine Moore / emoore@chronicle-tribune.com
By the numbers
Grant County population in 2000: 73,403
Grant County population in 2010: 70,061
Growth in 2000-2010: -4.55%
Growth in population age 65 and over: 3.34%
Growth in population between age 55 and 64: 19.77 %
Growth in population age 85 and over: 18%
Source: Center on Aging and Community at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community using U.S. Census data. www.agingindiana.org.
Like in the rest of the country, people in Marion and Grant County are getting older.
Baby boomers are reaching or passing retirement age and the entire area is undergoing a significant shift in population.
The current construction of a new assisted living facility in Marion is just one sign that what some call the “silver tsunami” is reaching Grant County.
According to U.S. Census numbers, though Grant County lost almost five percent of its total population between 2000 and 2010, the population between ages 55 and 64 grew almost 20 percent.
 |
Director of Indiana University’s Center on Aging and Community Phillip Stafford said such numbers are driven by many factors, including the sheer size of the “Baby Boom” generation.
“Communities in the Midwest and around the country are aging for a couple reasons,” he said. “One is just the population is growing older and not moving away. Most older people want to stay put, despite the Madison Avenue stereotype. The second is young people are leaving because of a lack of job opportunities.”
Stafford said though some public discussions have emphasized possible negative aspects of the population change, he did not view it that way.
“I personally don’t see it so much as a silver tsunami (but) as a golden opportunity,” he said. “It can be a very good thing to have a greater population of older people. Older people tend to be more loyal to businesses and are consumers of important services and products. Obviously they count for jobs in healthcare.”
As the general population gets older, many seniors may not have to move to become part of a retirement community.
One recent phenomena is the growth of naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs). These are places with high populations, typically between 40 and 50 percent, of older people that aged in place. NORCs have been identified in Gary, Huntington and Muncie.
Judi Ritter, vice president of planning and development at LifeStream Services, which encompasses seven counties in one of Indiana’s Area Agencies on Aging, said a recent study of a Muncie NORC shows communities must be prepared to make areas livable for older residents.
“We have all these seniors in the area that may not be able to drive, but want to socialize and do everything they want to,” she said. “How do you get them to Marsh safely? I think the challenges end up being able to have the people working with them understand what really is happening in the community.”
Ritter said Muncie is on track to look more like Florida in the future and it’s helped the community understand how to make things livable for all ages. Things such as assessable sidewalks, well-lit streets and parks and longer crosswalk timings don’t just help the elderly, she said.
“For instance, if you set the crosswalk timing for someone with a walker it will be the same with a stroller,” she said.
Interim director of Ball State University’s Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology Kathy Segrist said such improvements could keep both seniors and younger family caregivers in communities longer.
“You’ve got to have housing, cultural enrichment and enhancement activities … to draw boomer kids back home,” she said. “You really have to have something for the caregiver and to keep people in the community.”
Carolyn Williams, executive director Marion-Grant County Senior Center, said attracting relatively younger baby boomers to senior centers has forced some to adopt new strategies.
“That means finding things for a more active and physically able generation,” she said. “The prime thing they want is choice.”
Segrist said active baby boomers are becoming more likely to try to care for their older parents for longer.
“People hang on as long as they can as a caregiver,” she said. “But it comes to a point where even a family caregiver can’t be around 24 hours a day. A lot of people are moving to assisted living facilities (for that reason).”
An unnamed, new assisted living and skilled care facility being built on the site of the former Emily Flinn nursing home, 614 W. 14th St., is just one of six similar projects being built by its company, Mainstreet Capital Partners. Stafford said though these facilities have become more popular in the past decade or more, it may be a self-created niche.
“When it comes to assisted living facilities, I think the development of that industry is only partly affected by changing numbers in the population,” he said. “They’re for more middle-income or affluent people. Many of the people going in are those that went to nursing homes in the past.”
The growing cost of elder care, not just at high-end assisted living facilities, is just one reason families should start thinking about options such as long-term care insurance, Segrist said.
“There are two camps (of people),” she said. “There are those who have saved all their lives. Then there is the group that will spend money as they go along and if they need assistance they’ll go to a nursing home and lay on a Medicaid bed.”
Even after a lifetime of saving money, many people still can’t afford many care options, Segrist said.
“It’s an interesting journey,” she said. “I hope boomers are paying attention to what’s happening to their parents and grandparents.”
Copyright © 2025 Chronicle-Tribune