53 Of The Most Interesting Facts About Baby Boomers (2024)

Baby Boomers represent the 76 million people born between1946 and 1964. They were born during the post World War II baby boom. They rejected and redefined traditional values. They are also the wealthiest, most active and have the most disposable income for food, apparel and retirement programs. They are retiring later in life due to the economic recession of 2008 but are living longer than any generation before them. Below, I break down the Baby Boomer generation across all aspects of their life, including consumerism, their values, their political views and employment status.

Facts AboutGenerations Series

51 Of The Most Interesting Facts AboutGeneration Z.
74 Of The Most Interesting Facts About Millennials.
44 Of The Most Interesting Facts AboutGeneration X.
53 Of The Most Interesting Facts About Baby Boomers.

Baby Boomers and the economy

• Baby Boomers face present value lifetime costs for uncovered long-term care of $44,000. [PMC]
• 65% of Baby Boomers plan to work past age 65 or do not plan to retireand 34%plan to continue working for enjoyment, including 18% who want to stay involved and 16% who enjoy what they do. [Transamerica Center]
• 59% of Baby Boomers are unemployed and looking for work and 33% are employed and looking for work. [Future Workplace and Beyond.com]

Baby Boomer values

• 67% say that adult children have a responsibility to provide financial help to elderly parent in need compared to 84% of millennials. [Pew Research]
• 39% support same-sex married compared to 70% of millennials. [Pew Research]
• 90% are married and 49% were married between 18 and 33.[Pew Research]
• 17% don’t identify with one religion compared to 36% of millennials. [Pew Research]

Baby Boomers as employees

• 80% of Baby Boomersin their early 50s are in the workforce and a third of the oldest boomers are still working in some capacity. [Gallup]
• 67% of Baby Boomers are either not engaged or actively disengaged at work. [Gallup]
• 41% of Baby Boomers say workers should stay with an employer at least five years before looking for a new job. [Millennial Branding/PayScale.com]
• Baby Boomers are most likely to have the highest-paying jobs, including Chief Medical Officer (CMO) ($300,700), Psychiatrist ($215,200), and Aerospace Engineer ($122,800).[Millennial Branding/PayScale.com]
• 54% of Baby Boomers spend between 5 and 20 hours per week searching for a job. [Millennial Branding/Beyond.com]
• 87% of Baby Boomers choose job boards as the resource they turn to first in a job search. [Millennial Branding/Beyond.com]
• LinkedIn is the top choice of Boomers (29%)of social networking sites for job searching.[Millennial Branding/Beyond.com]
• 65% of Boomers feel like they suffer from age discrimination.[Millennial Branding/Beyond.com]
• For Boomers,the most important things they look for in a job are meaningful work (60%) and location (57%).[Millennial Branding/Beyond.com]
• 64% of boomers said they feel relevant to their company’s vision and mission. [Millennial Branding/Beyond.com]
• 67% said they’ve had enough training to become a leader at their company.[Millennial Branding/Beyond.com]
• 61% of Baby Boomers say that Boomers are the most capable of leading organizations.[Millennial Branding/Beyond.com]
• 53% of Baby Boomers said that men make better leaders than women.[Millennial Branding/Beyond.com]

Baby Boomers as entrepreneurs

• More than 80% of Baby Boomers launch ventures as a lifestyle choice or to boost income. These boomer entrepreneurs are primarily choosing to start businesses because it allows them to be independent (32%), pursue their interests and passions (27%) or increase their income (24%). [Gallup]
• 66% who own businesses agree or strongly agree that they can easily think of people who would be great partners if they ever decided to start a business. [Gallup]
• Baby Boomers are twice as likely to launch a new business compared to millennials. There’s a 35% chance that an older business owner started the business he or she currently manages. [Kaufman Association]
• 45% of Baby Boomers consider themselves to be entrepreneurs. [Millennial Branding / Monster]

Baby Boomers as consumers

• 30% would access a mobile coupon to redeem in a retail store and 32% research products online. [Neustar]
• Boomers represent 44% of the US population, and in the next 5 years, they’re projected to hold 70% of US disposable income and buy 49% of total consumer-packaged goods. [Nielsen /BoomAgers]
• Baby Boomers account for over 50% of sales for 72% of over 6,500 brands that Nielsen tracks. [Nielsen and Hallmark]
• 59% said newspapers and magazines were instrumental in starting their consumer product search. [Neustar]
• 77% of Boomers will purchase something based on its value followed by 42% who had a positive experience in the store and interestingly enough, 42% choose an item based on price. [Fona]
• 35% of all U.S. homeowners are Baby Boomers. [Zillow]
• Baby Boomers spend 18% more time than Millennials on their home search, averaging 4.9 months searching for a home to buy.[Zillow]
• Baby Boomers spend the most across all product categories but are targeted by just 5-10% of marketing. [AARP]
• Over the next 20 years, spending by Boomersis expected to increase by 58% to $4.74 trillion. [AARP]
• Baby Boomers are responsible for 80% of all luxury travel spending. [Pew Research]
• 62% have the best experience at a brick-and-mortar store when buying a product compared to 19% who said online-only retailer. [Salesforce.com]
• 74% have praised a brand in person to others and 54% have in-store.[Salesforce.com]
• 86% are a member of a brand loyalty program to get points and rewards and 71% to get better deals.[Salesforce.com]

Baby Boomers as investors

• 70% of the disposable income in the U.S. is controlled by Baby Boomers. [Nielsen]
• Baby Boomers will inherit $15 trillion in the next 20 years.[Nielsen]
• Boomers own 80% of all money in savings and loan associations. [Suzanne Williams]
• 59% of Boomers expect Social Security to be a major source of their income during retirement. [IRI]
• 45% of Boomers surveyed had absolutely nothing saved for retirement. [IRI]
• 30% postponed their retirement plans 30% stopped contributing to retirement accounts.[IRI]
• 73% say they are fairy or very knowledgeable when it comes to investing compared to 25% that aren’t knowledgeable at all. [Securian]
• 65% turn to a financial advisor and 39% turn to news outlets are their primary source for investment advice.[Securian]
• 71% of Baby Boomer workers have access to a 401(k) or similar plan offered by their employer, including 78% who are working full-time and 42% part-time. [Transamerica Center]

Baby Boomers in Politics

• 44% identify themselves as conservative, 33% moderate, and 21% liberal. [Gallup]
• 66% of Baby Boomers say that preserving social security and medicare is more important than reducing the deficit. [Pew Research]
• 35% of Baby Boomer voters say that the government should do more to solve our problems compared to 59% of Millennials. [Pew Research]
• They get their news from local TV (60%), Fox News (47%), and NBC News (47%). [Pew Research]
• 45% select politics and government as one of the three topics that they are most interested in. [Pew Research]
• 34% are conservative, 33% are liberal and 35% are mixed. [Pew Research]