Long Island population changes

Long Island’s population changes paint a complicated picture.

For instance, life expectancy is better for the wealthy and worse for the poor, Nassau County’s overall life expectancy (82.8 years) is better than the statewide average (81.2 years), while Suffolk County is worse (80.7 years), and race and ethnicity changes up those numbers even more.

Are we growing as a region?

This is hard to answer, as our population has shrunk by 0.16 percent since 2009, but we have grown by 0.29 percent from 2016 to 2017.

The population changes are so small as a whole that it is hard to say anything definitively. Perhaps instead we should be asking: Why is our region staying relatively stagnant?

In comparison, New York City’s population grew by three percent over the same period.

Population changes by age group (2009-2017)

The trend above shows that our population ages 55 and above has grown significantly, and if we grouped together everyone below 34 years old, we would see an overall population drop in the under 34 age group as well.

The share of each age group on Long Island follows the same trend.

At the same time, birthrates on Long Island have declined by nearly 20 percent (2000-2016).

The increase of population aged 18 to 34 is curious – does this mean we are attracting young adults that subsequently leave Long Island as they get older?

Data from ACS 2017 5-year & 1-year