Top US Cities for Employed Seniors: A 2024 Analysis

A recent analysis determined the 10 American cities where most people age 65 and older are working.

The study by Provision Living determined its findings by reviewing data from the Census Bureau. In particular, cities with a population of 200,000 or more.

Five of the top 10 cities were located in Texas.

The top 10 cities with the most working seniors are Plano, Texas, Washington, D.C., Anchorage, Ala., Minneapolis, Minn., Garland, Texas, Austin, Texas, Durham, N.C., Dallas, Texas, Nashville, Tenn. and Irving, Texas, respectively.

The percentage of seniors living in Plano that are in the workforce is 25.4 percent out of a population of 34,164 people. In Washington, 24.1 percent of 79,769 seniors were still in the workforce while 24.0 percent of the 28,148 seniors living in Anchorage were employed.

Large cities like New York and Chicago did not break the top 50.

“Our list of the top 25 cities shows that at least 20% or more of the senior population is still in the workforce within those cities,” the report stated.

Provision Living also analyzed the cities where the senior workforce is increasing. Seniors working in Durham, N.C., increased 109 percent since 2009. Meanwhile, the growth in Plano grew by 99 percent since 2009.

The percentage of people 65 and older in the labor force has doubled since 1985, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2026 some 30 percent of seniors age 65 to 74 are expected to be working, forecasts show.