County data desk
Which Missouri counties hold the most residents aged 65 and over? St. Louis County, with 199,345, then Jackson County with 120,879.
The same 115 county file this desk ranks by share, sorted the other way: by the number of older adults, largest first. Twenty five counties hold 73 percent of the state's population aged 65 and over.
Methodology
- Metric
- Residents aged 65 and over, count, sorted descending. The count is read directly from the file; nothing on this page is computed except the share column, which is the count divided by total population and is shown for context, not used to sort.
- Source
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2024 county characteristics file cc-est2024-agesex-29.csv, columns AGE65PLUS_TOT, AGE85PLUS_TOT and POPESTIMATE, rows coded YEAR 6.
- Reference date
- July 1, 2024.
- Item set
- All 115 Missouri county equivalents, the 114 counties plus the independent city of St. Louis. The item set was fixed before any value was read. The 25 largest counts are published here; the remaining 90 are held in the source file and sum to 315,755.
- Pulled
- September 10, 2026
- Licence
- Public domain, a work of the United States government.
| # | County | Aged 65 and over | Total population | Share 65 and over | Aged 85 and over |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Louis County | 199,345 | 992,929 | 20.1% | 22,623 |
| 2 | Jackson County | 120,879 | 727,362 | 16.6% | 12,647 |
| 3 | St. Charles County | 76,887 | 423,726 | 18.1% | 8,071 |
| 4 | Greene County | 54,779 | 307,942 | 17.8% | 6,293 |
| 5 | St. Louis city | 46,992 | 279,695 | 16.8% | 4,630 |
| 6 | Clay County | 42,284 | 263,370 | 16.1% | 4,149 |
| 7 | Jefferson County | 41,443 | 231,888 | 17.9% | 3,040 |
| 8 | Boone County | 27,911 | 192,154 | 14.5% | 2,936 |
| 9 | Franklin County | 21,777 | 107,256 | 20.3% | 2,170 |
| 10 | Cass County | 21,407 | 113,873 | 18.8% | 2,338 |
| 11 | Jasper County | 21,154 | 126,479 | 16.7% | 2,222 |
| 12 | Platte County | 19,125 | 113,207 | 16.9% | 1,880 |
| 13 | Christian County | 16,797 | 96,045 | 17.5% | 1,669 |
| 14 | Cape Girardeau County | 15,568 | 83,658 | 18.6% | 1,981 |
| 15 | Buchanan County | 15,275 | 83,574 | 18.3% | 1,519 |
| 16 | Cole County | 14,884 | 77,625 | 19.2% | 1,619 |
| 17 | Camden County | 13,726 | 44,135 | 31.1% | 1,165 |
| 18 | Taney County | 13,282 | 56,744 | 23.4% | 1,346 |
| 19 | St. Francois County | 12,100 | 67,503 | 17.9% | 1,226 |
| 20 | Newton County | 12,045 | 61,519 | 19.6% | 1,294 |
| 21 | Stone County | 10,800 | 32,630 | 33.1% | 989 |
| 22 | Lincoln County | 10,226 | 65,888 | 15.5% | 888 |
| 23 | Callaway County | 8,555 | 45,126 | 19.0% | 897 |
| 24 | Butler County | 8,334 | 41,814 | 19.9% | 914 |
| 25 | Phelps County | 8,253 | 45,672 | 18.1% | 976 |
The 26th county, Howell, reports 8,206 and falls just outside the cut. The median county in the file holds 3,916 residents aged 65 and over; 93 of the 115 hold fewer than 10,000.
Where the older population is, by weight
Counted rather than proportioned, Missouri's older population sits in a handful of places. St. Louis County holds 199,345 residents aged 65 and over, 17.0 percent of the statewide total on its own. Jackson County follows with 120,879, St. Charles County with 76,887, Greene County with 54,779 and the city of St. Louis with 46,992. Those five jurisdictions together hold 498,882 older adults, 42.7 percent of the state.
The drop after the top of the table is steep. Position 10, Cass County, holds 21,407. Position 25, Phelps County, holds 8,253. The 90 counties below the cut hold 315,755 between them, which is 27.0 percent of the state spread across 78 percent of its counties.
For anyone planning coverage rather than describing a community, this is the column that matters. A county with a high share and a small base can be served from a single office. A county with 199,345 older adults cannot.
Count and share are near inverses of each other
Only two of the 25 counties on this page also appear in the statewide top 20 by share: Camden County, 17th here at 13,726 and 4th by share at 31.1 percent, and Stone County, 21st here at 10,800 and 1st by share at 33.1 percent. The other 23 rows are absent from the share ranking altogether.
The reverse holds too. Jackson County, second in the state by count, reports a share of 16.6 percent, which places it 8th from the bottom of the same 115 rows sorted the other way. Clay County, 6th by count, is 7th from the bottom by share. Boone County, 8th by count at 27,911, is 3rd from the bottom by share at 14.5 percent. A large, growing county carries many older adults and a modest share of them at the same time.
That is why this desk publishes the two sorts as two pages. The share ranking, on the oldest counties page, describes how a county is composed. This page describes how many people are in the band. The counties where share is lowest are sorted separately on the youngest counties page.
The seven St. Louis region counties in a statewide count
The Missouri side of the St. Louis region places five of its seven county equivalents in this top 25: St. Louis County 1st, St. Charles County 3rd, the city of St. Louis 5th, Jefferson County 7th and Franklin County 9th. Lincoln County places 22nd with 10,226. Warren County, with 7,504, places 30th and sits outside the cut.
Together those seven hold 404,174 residents aged 65 and over, 34.6 percent of the state. The Illinois counties of the region are not in this file by construction; the regional ranking that includes them is on the county ranking page.
Cautions
A count is a population, not a caseload. It includes every resident in the age band, the large majority of whom need no assistance, and this desk does not convert it into an estimate of demand for caregiver services or anything else.
The figures are estimates for a single reference date, built by the Census Bureau from the 2020 census base and administrative records, not a door to door count. The city of St. Louis is an independent city and its row is not part of the St. Louis County row; the two are never added together on this site. Sources, column codes and limits are on the methodology page.