Judging from a U.S. census chart of voting by age groups since 1980, the older you are, the more likely you are to vote. Shown were the years from 1980 through 2016. The rate for 18 to 29 year old voters was generally about or below 50 percent, rarely reaching above that level. Those older than 65 were the most likely to vote: generally over 70 percent voted.

Well, you might say, people over 65 are more likely to be retired and child free, with more time for political matters. However, citizens 45 to 64 were only slightly less likely to vote, though surely many of them had jobs and other responsibilities.

Lately, we have seen interest in whether more young voters might participate in the coming presidential elections. Now that Joe Biden has dropped out of the race, the question of age has landed in Donald Trump’s corner. He’s 78.

Is it Trump’s age or his policies that younger voters might be more interested in? Not surprisingly, all voters may be more interested in vice-presidential picks, especially for Trump.

Regardless, if young people vote at higher rates, age-centered politics might in the future be geared toward a younger America. What might that mean for congressional actions? Less interest in social security and more interest in equal access to jobs and training, for example? Of course, with the country’s lower birth rate, older people become a greater percentage of the population. Immigration, however, tends to bring in younger, working age people.

As the years have passed since the country’s founding, age is only one of many changes affecting our voting population.