The South was the only U.S. region that grew its population of residents younger than 18 between 2020 and 2025, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The majority of that growth across all five of the bureau’s designated regions was concentrated in the 65-and-older cohort, as baby boomers continued aging into retirement, according to a June 25 agency news release.
It is a shift healthcare leaders have flagged as a dual pressure point: mass workforce retirements and a higher-acuity patient population potentially arriving simultaneously. The South’s younger population growth, then, stands out as a possible pipeline for the next generation of healthcare workers.
The region has also attracted major capital investment. Of eight health systems that have announced or advanced hospital construction projects worth $1 billion or more in 2026, five were in the South, spanning Texas, Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas.
Here are five things to know from the data:
1. The South saw a 1.1% population growth in those younger than 18, compared to declines in the West (-5.7%), Northeast (-4.1%) and Midwest (-3.9%).
2. All age groups in the South grew at a faster rate than any others from 2020 to 2025. It was also the only region to see population growth in residents ages 45-64, at 0.1%, compared to the Northeast (-7.1%), Midwest (-6.2%) and West (-2.7%).
3. The regional age patterns are occurring as the South sees strong positive migration patterns this decade, according to Lauren Bowers, chief of the bureau’s population estimates branch. Overall, the South grew by nearly twice the country’s population growth, at 6% compared to 3.1% between April 1, 2020, and July 1, 2025.
4. Outlying metropolitan counties — those anchored by cities of at least 50,000 people — drove the South’s population growth, according to the bureau. Metropolitan counties grew by 6.7% and micropolitan counties, anchored by smaller cities of 10,000 to 50,000, grew 2.7%, reflecting that the most significant growth is not coming from major cities. Metropolitan counties in the South were the only counties that saw population growth among children.
5. The U.S. median age — at which half the population is older and half is younger — was 39.4 in July 2025, slightly up from 39.2 year over year and 38.6 in April 2020.
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