Its relatively unchanging both by location and as a percentage of the population WRT "pick up any more"
For more than half a century, the demographics have always been its a life long hobby most pick up in their middle age, and a steady fifth of a percent of the population are hams.
Because of the baby boomers the number of hams in the USA is larger now than ever.
Note that if contemporary "broadcasting" has taught anything, its even a very small fraction of the population can have a distinct healthy culture AND quite a bit of variety within that culture. So most hams are 60 yr old retiring EE-type men, but there are certainly all kinds of folks and its a very social hobby.
What is "old" is the concept of local clubs for any hobby or activity. Young folks don't do "clubs" of any sort, so naturally all the hams in the local clubs are old. There are also correlated effects where VHF FM repeaters were affordable and high tech for a small (dozen size) club in maybe 1980, and with the decline in that form of operation the average age is quite high. In the 80s it was fairly normal for FM repeater club members to be pretty young as that was the high tech rebellious thing to do.
For more than half a century, the demographics have always been its a life long hobby most pick up in their middle age, and a steady fifth of a percent of the population are hams.
Because of the baby boomers the number of hams in the USA is larger now than ever.
Note that if contemporary "broadcasting" has taught anything, its even a very small fraction of the population can have a distinct healthy culture AND quite a bit of variety within that culture. So most hams are 60 yr old retiring EE-type men, but there are certainly all kinds of folks and its a very social hobby.
What is "old" is the concept of local clubs for any hobby or activity. Young folks don't do "clubs" of any sort, so naturally all the hams in the local clubs are old. There are also correlated effects where VHF FM repeaters were affordable and high tech for a small (dozen size) club in maybe 1980, and with the decline in that form of operation the average age is quite high. In the 80s it was fairly normal for FM repeater club members to be pretty young as that was the high tech rebellious thing to do.