Table 2.

Evidence of sociodemographic differences and disparities in ageism

Sociodemographic characteristic	Differences
	%a (n)	Group experiencing more ageism or more vulnerable to negative effects associated with ageism* Sample size b: Small Moderate Large
Age	14 studies assessed More ageism 57% (8) Older age 14% (2) Younger age 43% (6) No differences	Older age/age group [2, 13, 23, 27† (implicit ageism), 30 (amount), 33, 34, 44] Younger age/age group [27† (explicit ageism & acknowledgement), 30 (moderation)] No difference [31, 39, 43, 46, 48, 53]
Sex	14 studies assessed More ageism 7% (1) Women 29% (4) Men 71% (10) No differences	Women [34] Men [30, 39, 44 (adjusted model), 55†] No difference [2, 24, 31, 33, 41, 44 (correlation), 46, 48, 51, 53]
Race/ethnicity	12 studies assessed More ageism 42% (5) racial/ethnic minority group 17% (2) racial/ethnic majority group 75% (9) No differences	Racial/ethnic minority group Non-White [31, 51] African American [55] Hispanic (v. Non-Hispanic Black) [2] Chinese/Korean American (v. African American) [39] Hispanic (v. African American) [39 (unadjusted model)] Racial/ethnic majority group Non-Hispanic White (v. Non-Hispanic Black) [2] White [44] Non-Hispanic [44 (adjusted model)] No difference Non-Hispanic White v. Hispanic [2] Other/Multiracial v. Non-Hispanic White, Non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic [2] Chinese v. Korean American [39] Hispanic v. African American [39 (adjusted model)] Race: [30, 33, 34, 41, 42, 46] Hispanic ethnicity: [34, 41, 44 (correlation)]
Marital status & household composition	3 studies assessed 3 marital status 1 household composition More ageism 33% (1) not married 67% (2) no difference by marital status 100% (1) no difference by household composition	Not married [30] No difference by marital status [2, 31] No difference by household composition Living with others v. alone [31]
Education	11 studies assessed More ageism 64% (7) less education 18% (2) more education 18% (2) no difference	Less education [2, 30, 33, 39, 44, 51, 53] More education [41, 43] No difference [31, 46]
Socioeconomic status	4 studies assessed More ageism 100% (4) lower socioeconomic status	Lower socioeconomic status <$60k annual household income (v. ≥$60k) [2] Household wealth in 2 quintiles (v. highest quintile) [30] Less wealth [33] Subjective social status [53]
Employment	8 studies assessed 5 employment status 3 employment characteristics More ageism 40% (2) not employed 60% (3) no difference by employment status 67% (2) some employment characteristics 33% (1) no difference by employment characteristics	Not employed [2, 43] No difference by employment status [30, 31, 46] Employment characteristics Early and late career (v. midcareer) [50†] Managers, professionals, skilled technical (v. blue collar supervisors) [55†] No difference by employment characteristics Faculty v. administration/staff [36]
Geography	2 studies assessed 1 urbanicity 1 state 1 region More ageism 100% (1) rural 100% (1) not from Ohio (v. Ohio) 100% (1) Midwest (v. Northeast) 100% (1) no differences between other regions	Rural (v. metro) [2] Not from Ohio (v. Ohio) [51] Midwest Region (v. Northeast) [2] No regional difference Pairwise comparisons of Midwest, West, South, Northeast, with the exception of Midwest v. Northeast [2]
Religion	1 study assessed religiosity religion More ageism: 100% (1) lower religiosity 100% (1) no difference by religion	Lower religiosity [31] No difference by religion [31]
Political affiliation	1 study assessed More ageism: 100% (1) Republicans & Independents	Republican or Independent (v. Demographic or other) [51]

^aPercentile sums may not equal 100 because some studies used multiple strategies generating divergent findings to assess ageism differences for a single sociodemographic characteristic (e.g., examining associations with multiple ageism measures, crude differences, adjusted associations, moderation analyses).

^*All reported differences were statistically significant with p<.05, unless accompanied by † symbol.

^†Statistical differences not assessed.

^bSample size classification: small = 101-400; moderate ~1000-2000; large >4000.