By 2020 California is projected to add approximately 10 million people, according to a study by the California Budget Project, and the number of residents that are 65 or older will jump by 75.4 percent. True to its national image, California is younger than the nation overall. In 2006, the state’s median age was 34.4, compared with 36.4 in the country as a whole. Californians age 65 or older comprised 10.8 percent of the 2006 population, compared with 12.7 percent in the rest of the country. However, older Californians are the state’s fastest growing age group. In 2020, California is projected to be home to 2.7 million more older residents than in 2000. More than half (56.1 percent) of these older Californians are expected to be white, although whites’ share of the total population is expected to fall to 37.4 percent.

California’s prime working-age population -- those age 25 to 64 -- is projected to grow at a healthy rate between 2000 and 2020, only slightly more slowly than the overall population, 27.4 percent compared with 29.4 percent. California’s school-age population -- those age 5 to 19 -- is expected to increase much more slowly than in the recent past and at less than half the rate of the population overall, 13.5 percent for school-age children compared with 29.4 percent for the population overall. At the same time, the study said, while the number of white residents is expected to shrink to 37.4 percent, Hispanics’ share is projected to rise to 41.4 percent and Asians’ share is expected to increase to 12.5 percent. In 2006, California’s white population alone was larger than the population of Illinois, its Latino population was larger than the population of Pennsylvania, and its Asian population was larger than the population of Oregon, the Sacramento-based organization said. The study also showed that California’s population is far more ethnically diverse than that of the rest of the country. In 2000, California was already a “majority minority” state. In 2006, whites accounted for 42.8 percent of the population, compared to 69.4 percent in the rest of the country. Latinos constituted 35.9 percent of the population, compared to 11.9 percent in the rest of the country, and Asians constituted 12.1 percent of the population, compared to 3.2 percent in the rest of the country.