Why the fastest-growing place for young kids in the US is in the metro with the oldest residents

(11 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Villages, Florida – 1 August 2024
1. Golf cart bridge over busy road

ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Villages, Florida – 31 July 2024
2. Various of people walking around town square

ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Villages, Florida – 1 August 2024
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Stanley, The Villages, Florida resident:
"So The Villages is the largest retirement community in the United States. And I’ve been led to understand that it’s the largest retirement community in the world right now."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Villages, Florida – 31 July 2024
4. Golf cart driving in town square

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wildwood, Florida – 1 August 2024
5. Kids playing on water slide
6. Family members watching children play
+PARTIALLY COVERED++
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Feeney, Wildwood, Florida resident:
"We moved up here, just to find something more family friendly, conservative, more space, slower paced for our young kids, more land, things like that. And, we like it up here. It’s just been an adjustment."
8. Various of kids playing
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Eldresah St. Fleurant, Wildwood, Florida resident:
"I actually, was born and grew up right down the street from where I’m living now, further into Wildwood. And, we moved out when I was about 6 or 7 years old because it just almost seemed like kind of a dead end neighborhood, a dead end town."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Villages, Florida – 31 July 2024
10. Various of town square

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wildwood, Florida – 1 August 2024
++COVERED++
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Eldresah St. Fleurant, Wildwood, Florida resident:
"And after I grew up, got married and moved back, it was just it was like you were coming to a completely different town. It was almost starting to become Orlando esque."
12. Various of traffic

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wildwood, Florida – 1 August 2024
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Stanley, The Villages, Florida resident:
"The traffic. I feel silly talking about traffic in The Villages, because I’ve lived in cities where there’s actually traffic, but there’s traffic here now. And with traffic comes more car accidents, and we’re in golf carts and there’s more golf cart accidents because it’s just such a crush of people here now. And as long as The Villages keeps growing, people will will keep coming."
14. Various of residents gathering for golf cart parade
15. Various of golf cart bridge over busy road

STORYLINE:
No one younger than age 19 is allowed to live in The Villages, the massive retirement community in central Florida which has the highest median age of any place in the U.S.

Yet it is part of the fastest-growing metro area for young children this decade. The number of children under age 14 has risen more than 18%.

And the fact that the working age population in The Villages-Wildwood metro area also has risen by 19% this decade has a lot to do with that.

Someone has to provide services to the retirees in The Villages, and many of those workers are young adults with children.

For older residents of The Villages like 60-year-old Chris Stanley, the influx of families is a breath of fresh air, but she worries about the growing lack of affordable housing and overcrowded schools.

Sarah Feeney’s 3-year-old son wears hearing aids. She said it was “a nightmare” finding an audiologist who sees children in the Wildwood-The Villages area since all the medical services “are geared toward the older generation.”

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