More seniors are living past age 90, report states

The number of Americans over the age of 90 has tripled in thirty years, reaching 1.9 million in 2010, according to a new report.

That means long-term care facilities are increasingly seeing older, sicker residents. Nearly 20% of people in their early 90s, and more than 30% of people in the late 90s, live in nursing homes. Additionally, almost 40% percent for centenarians live in nursing homes, according to a report from the National Institute on Aging and the U.S. Census Bureau. The age group makes up 4.7% of the population today, according to the report.

Almost all individuals in their 90s who lived in a nursing home reported having a disability.

“Traditionally, the cutoff age for what is considered the 'oldest old' has been age 85," Census Bureau demographer Wan He said. "But increasingly people are living longer and the older population itself is getting older. Given its rapid growth, the 90-and-older population merits a closer look.”

Click here to read the report.