Today, concerns about the financial stability of Social Security, trends in disability, health care costs, and the supply of caregivers are all driven by the coming explosion in the number of people over the age of 65. Aging in America focuses on the economic and demographic portrait of the senior population and can provide a context for analysis of broader population issues. It provides a wide range of characteristics of the older population including: age composition, race and Hispanic origin, educational attainment, living arrangements, veteran status, employment and income, health insurance, disability and housing characteristics.

Extracting comparative information from the Census Bureau's databases can be difficult and time-consuming. Aging in America provides comparative data on a variety of topics in a single, easy-to-use volume.

Some of the benefits of Aging in America include:
It provides a cross-section of socio-economic characteristics focused on the aging population for commonly researched geographic areas: states, counties, cities, metropolitan and micropolitan areas, and congressional districtsThe tables are structured to allow easy comparisons across geographic areas and easy profiling of characteristics