The American Planning Association (APA) in partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy developed and announced the 2025 Trend Report for Planners, which is the fourth year the research and analysis has been compiled. These reports highlight demographic trends, but also the planning implications related to that data.
As such, the report makes several references to the country’s aging population relative to housing, transportation, workforce and other issues. As an example, the report maintains that the U.S. remains unprepared to “meet the housing needs of older adults and caretakers.”
While promoting more housing options for baby boomers that “hold onto large homes due to the lack of suitable housing options,” the report also unfortunately frames this as “further limiting [housing] availability for younger generations.” The report still elevates some key issues that could be helpful for local and regional coalitions working on age- and dementia friendly communities to get buy-in from other partners.
The report mentions “dementia” once only in the context of climate-related health impacts that could increase dementia risk.
As in previous years, the 2025 Trend Report features a list of over 100 existing, emerging, and potential future trends that the APA Foresight team and our Trend Scouting Foresight Community identified as relevant to planning. The trends are structured within three timeframes (Act Now, Prepare, Learn, and Watch), which indicate the urgency of planners’ actions. Within each timeframe, trends are grouped into themed clusters. For each trend, the report gives insights and explains why it is important for planners to know about and consider the trend in their work. All trends and signals are based on facts and are “neutrally described without judgement.”
The full report is available for download here.