We Are Young

Dallas houses young and vibrant population despite retirement rep

Dallas is where the seniors aren't.

Photo by Matt Pasant

We knew Dallas is where the young and pretty people live, but now the numbers truly back it up. Despite Texas’ being named by WalletHub as one of the top 10 places to retire, and Plano’s being third in line for the same title in a study by Livability.com, a different analysis shows that Dallas actually has one of the smallest populations of baby boomers in the country.

NewGeography pored over 2014 American Community Survey data for the country’s 53 largest metropolitan statistical areas to track where Americans over 65 are living. The answer: not Dallas. And not Austin or Houston either, as all three Texas cities — along with Salt Lake City, Utah, and Raleigh, North Carolina — are in the bottom five for housing baby boomers.

Only 10.2 percent of Dallas’ population is over 65. Compare that to Tucson, Arizona (17.7 percent), and Jacksonville, Florida (14.2 percent), and it’s hard to deny our standing. Oddly enough, it’s not just the sunny standbys that are attracting seniors; the Rust Belt states are also climbing in senior popularity.

The website posits that this is not due to weather, per se, or even older, declining industries, but rather the migration patterns to lower-cost, typically growing cities. Once they planted roots, these folks aren’t inclined to leave, meaning that the senior populations in these areas are here to stay.

Another theory? Older and younger generations are moving to be closer together.

"Many parents are following their migrating children (and, more important, grandchildren) to these areas," the article states. "A recent study ranks this among the biggest reason seniors move. Similarly, as many as one in four millennials has moved to be closer to their parents, often to enjoy life in more affordable communities and get help with raising their kids."

Where seniors move — if they move at all — will do much to shape America’s future geography, the report says.

"In some places, notably in the Rust Belt, an aging population may suffer from the lack of young people to generate new wealth, pay taxes, or provide them with services. In many others, notably in the Sun Belt, areas now built around youthful migration will have to prepare to accommodate many more aging people," it states. "And perhaps the biggest challenges will be felt by suburbs that, built for young families, now have to accommodate a growing senior population."

That means that even though Dallas, Austin, and Houston aren’t on the senior shortlist right now, they very might well be a few generations down the line, as the millennials and young families grow older.

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income analysis

This is the family income needed for one parent to stay home in Texas

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

The cost of raising a child has ballooned in major metros like Dallas-Fort Worth, forcing many families to weight the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas, that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support their stay-at-home partner and their child, the report found. If both parents worked in the household, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in North Texas, however, is slightly more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $22,337 to raise a child in Dallas-Fort Worth.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report's author says families will look for ways to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family