When I first heard the term “longevity risk”, I figured it was medical: a hazard associated with some new fountain-of-youth drug or diet. Silly me! It used to refer to the risk borne by pension funds or life insurance companies that guaranteed lifetime benefits. Then employer pension plans migrated to more volatile 401(k) plans. Then the market crashed and 401(k)s turned into 201(k)s.  “Longevity risk” is now the chilly term for the prospect that more and more Americans will outlive their retirement savings, spending their final years despairing and destitute.

The latest census data is out, and regional papers are picking up on it. In Baltimore County, the 85+ population is growing fast: up 40% between 2000 and 2007, and up 16.5% in the city itself. They’re paving the way for boomers (ages 55 to 64), whose numbers in the area rose by a third over the same period, July 2000 to July 2007. Among the old old, demographers credit overall longevity and better health care.

“The men I know are all looking at 80-year-old women,” says Murray Katz. Given his age, it’s not exactly a shocker; Katz is 82. But as this article by Frank Greve in the McClatchy Newspapers describes, Katz and his friends are part of a growing trend. Along with living longer, Americans are defying the stereotype of the sexless senior in record numbers. They’re not just hooking up, “they're the fastest-growing users of Internet dating services and the fastest growing group of cohabiters.”