Key Findings (cont.)

Daily life: Among adults ages 65 and older, nine in 10 talk with family or friends every day. About eight in 10 read a book, newspaper, or magazine, and three-quarters watch more than an hour of television. Nearly two-thirds drive a car. Less than half spend time on a hobby, and roughly one in four gets vigorous exercise.

Happiness: Older adults are about as happy as everyone else, the study reports. The same factors that predict happiness among younger adults—good health, good friends, and financial security—by and large predict happiness among older adults. However, while being married is a predictor of happiness among younger adults, it’s not so among older adults (perhaps because they have lost their spouses). Among older adults, happiness varies little by age, gender, or race.

Retirement: Some 83% of adults 65 and older describe themselves as retired, but the word means different things to different people. Although 76% fit the classic stereotype of the retiree who has completely left the working world behind, 8% say they are retired but are working part time, 2% say they are retired but working full time, and 3% say they are retired but looking for work. The remaining 11% describe themselves as still in the labor force, though not all of them have jobs. The average retiree is 75 years old and retired at age 62.

Living arrangements: More than nine in 10 respondents ages 65 and older live in their own home or apartment, and the vast majority are either very satisfied (67%) or somewhat satisfied (21%) with their living arrangements. Only 30% of adults ages 65-74 say they live alone, compared with 66% of adults ages 85 and above. Also, 2% of adults ages 65-74 and 4% of adults ages 75-84 said they live in an assisted living facility, compared with 15% of those ages 85 and above.

Social media? “If there’s one realm of modern life where old and young behave very differently, it’s in the adoption of newfangled information technologies,” according to the study. Four in 10 adults ages 65-74 use the Internet on a daily basis; that number drops to just one in six among adults 75 and older. By contrast, three-quarters of adults ages 18-30 go online daily. The generation gap widens when it comes to cell phones and text messages. Among adults 65 and older, 5% get most or all of their calls on a cell phone (compared to 72% of the under-30 crowd), and 11% sometimes use their cell phone to send or receive a text message (compared to 87% of the younger group).

View the entire 152-page report at the Pew Research Center.