Census shows fresh proof of graying of Pa.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Census Bureau figures being released today show Pennsylvania getting grayer, with the median age of residents inching past 40 as the baby boom generation approaches retirement age.

Counties in rural Pennsylvania are among the oldest in the commonwealth, along with areas in the western parts of the state once teeming with steel mills and coal mines.

Overall, the median age in Pennsylvania was 40.1 in the 2010 census, up from 38 a decade earlier. Children live in just less than 30 percent of households in the state, down from more than 32 percent in 2000.

The data is part of the next batch of census figures to be released in waves over the next two years. The latest numbers are fresh evidence of a long-developing aging trend in the state.