| OCR Text |
Show Population by Age As of 1990, Utah ranked second highest in the nation in the proportion of the population younger than age 5, first in the proportion of the population ages 5 to 17, and fiftieth in the proportion of the population 65 years of age or older. The median age in Utah in 1990 was 7 years younger than the U.S. Utah's age distribution plays a large role in making Utah's population seem relatively healthy. Younger populations have lower mortality rates and utilize fewer health care resources than older populations. In addition, hospital stays for older people are generally longer and costlier than those of younger people. For these reasons, states with older populations are likely to appear worse off in measures of health care utilization and costs. Use of age-adjusted data would create a more realistic and fair comparison of these measures, but while age-adjustment is commonly used in reporting Figure 5______________________________ mortality data, it is infrequently used in the reporting of other health care measures. Table 3. Percent of Population by Age Age Year Utah U.S. under 5 1980 1990 13.0 9.8 7.2 7.5 5-17 yrs 1980 1990 24.0 26.6 20.9 18.2 18-64 yrs 1980 1990 55.5 54.9 60.6 61.8 65+ yrs 1980 1990 7.5 8.7 11.3 12.5 median age (yr.) 1980 1990 24.0 26.0 30.0 32.8 Age Distribution in Utah, 1980 and 1990 60 -r ¦ 1980 ? 1990 Under 5 5 to 17 18 to 64 65+ Age in years Figure 6 Age Distribution in the U.S., 1980 and 1990 ¦ 1980 E3 1990 Under 5 5 to 17 18 to 64 Age in years 65+ Utah's Health: An Annual Review 1996 35 |
