Syracuse University student Leah Mattiaccio, who grew up in this area, is looking forward to her senior year this semester, graduating and probably moving away.

“Just want to see what else is out there,” Mattiaccio told CNY Central’s Jim Kenyon. “Syracuse is great but I want to see what else the world has to offer.”

Leah is not alone, and as more and more young people leave Central New York, the overall population gets older. As this area gets grayer, future economic growth becomes harder to achieve.

Now, Upstate New York has reached an important milestone. The median age here is 40 years old.

The Empire Center for Public Policy looked at three decades of census figures. In 1990 the median age was 33.4 years old, by 2000 it had climbed to 37.1, and in 2010 it finally made it to 40.0 years old….

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