Aging Trends

National Age Cohort Composition for 9 Allied Health Occupations From 2011 to 2017

This dashboard allows for comparison of age distributions within select health care occupations using data from the 2011, 2014, and 2017 American Community Survey. You may look at age distributions by percentage of workers within 5-year age increments, workers per 100,000 population in each age increment, and total workers in each age increment. You may also compare up to 3 occupations at the same time. To learn more about the data and the Workforce Dashboards more broadly, please read our FAQ page.

The following are a few example interpretations of the workforce data on select occupations including allied health from the Aging Trends Dashboard. To learn more about the data and the Workforce Dashboards more broadly, please read our FAQ page. 

Example 1: Consistent age distribution of the health care workforce

Here is a pattern where social workers can be seen to have a consistent age distribution over the years 2011, 2014 and 2017. This pattern can also be seen for dental hygienists (not shown here).

Example 2: Changing age distribution of the health care workforce

In this graph, physical therapists are shown to have an increasingly younger workforce, with the 2017 cohort showing a higher percentage of PTs in the younger age groups compared with 2011 and 2014. This pattern can also be seen for occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists. The opposite pattern (i.e. increasingly older) can be seen for respiratory therapists.

Example 3: Bimodal age distribution of the health care workforce

Here is a pattern where clinical lab technicians and technologists show more than one dominant age group in the 2011 and 2014 cohorts (and the 2017 cohort seems to be leveling off).

Example 4: Growing number of health care workers

In this graph, diagnostic lab technicians and technologists are shown to have an increasing number of workers in each age category by cohort – the number of diagnostic lab technicians and technologists per 100,000 population is higher for almost all age groups in 2017 compared with 2014 and 2011. Similarly, 2014 is higher than 2011 for almost all age groups.

 

Suggested citation:

Dahal A, Stubbs BA, Skillman SM, Frogner BK. Workforce Dashboards: Aging Trends Dashboard. Center for Health Workforce Studies, University of Washington, 2022. https://familymedicine.uw.edu/chws/resources/aging-trends/