While many people in Maine are talking football and gearing up for tonight’s Super Bowl, I can’t help but think about the elephant in the room that has been stressing me out lately. That’s not to say I will not be watching tonight’s football game because I definitely will. But first, I want to free my mind and wake up Maine’s youth about the age-gap that is disproportionately growing every day that passes.
Like the old adage says, admitting you have a problem is the first step in fixing the problem. Maine is the oldest state in the nation and is one of the ‘whitest’ states in terms of demographics. Although we’re not made up entirely of old white people, we’re pretty damn close.
With a median age of 43.5 years reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2012, Maine’s age distribution topples the national median age average at 37.4 and continues to grow older.
As Professor Charles Colgan from the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service puts it, “It’s not that we are disproportionately old,’ he said. “It’s that we are disproportionately not young.”
Maine, demographically, is currently at a surplus of baby boomers and a shortage of young adults.
Sadly, the problem is only going to worsen through time if action is not taken. With the rate of baby boomers growing older and our population decreasing over time, there is going to come a point where the tax base will not be big enough to support such government program services necessary for our senior citizens.
A decreasing population will also lead to a shortage in skilled labor and a shrinking economy if Maine fails to attract skilled and educated workers to the state.
We are already seeing signs of this as Maine’s retired population grows and the number of non-working dependents begins to outweigh the number of working age adults in what is known as the ‘dependency ratio.’
In terms of how to fix the problem, the solution is straightforward but far from simple: Bring more people to Maine.
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