I just have to look around the Sunnyvale Senior Center to see so-called "Senior Citizens" in the weight room, stretching in yoga class, or dancing with my Zumba instructor. Many of my Realtor friends over sixty (and into their 80's!) are selling homes full time.
The highest concentration of older adults in the United States who don't think of themselves as old. Fully 78% of adults ages 65 and older who live in the West say they don't feel old, compared with 67% of older adults who live in the rest of the country, according to a Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey.
Asked how old they feel, two-thirds of Westerners ages 65 and older say they feel younger than their chronological years, compared with 57% of older Americans in other regions. Among older Westerners, half say they feel 10 or more years younger than their actual age and one-in-five say they feel 20 or more years younger.
Older folks living in the West also feel healthier than older folks elsewhere. Among adults ages 65 and older, some 72% of those living in the West say they are in excellent or good health, compared with 63% of those living in other regions of the country.
This is mainly because older Westerners also get more exercise. Some 77% of Westerners ages 65 and older report they get some kind of physical exercise on a typical day, compared with 69% of those in the rest of the country.
For older Americans, being in excellent health, feeling very confident that they have enough money and assets to last through their retirement years and being highly satisfied with the number of friends they have are the strongest predictors of happiness.
But it is also clear that among older adults, feeling young is strongly correlated with overall happiness, so if you want to be among a lot of older folks who feel young and happy, the West looks like your best bet.
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