Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Baby-Boom Generation Is Shrinking

As of July 1, 2013, there were 316,128,839 people in the United States. The Census Bureau recently released estimates of the population by single-year of age on that date. Here is the size, share of total population, age range, and birth date of each generation...

Recession generation: 19,868,088 (6.3%)
   aged 4 or younger, born 2009 or later
iGeneration: 58,003,393 (18.3%)
   aged 5 to 18, born 1995 to 2008
Millennial generation: 77,970,996 (24.7%)
   aged 19 to 36, born 1977 to 1994
Generation X: 49,211,709 (15.6%)
   aged 37 to 48, born 1965 to 1976
Baby-boom generation: 75,900,696 (24.0%)
   aged 49 to 67, born 1946 to 1964
Older Americans: 35,173,957 (11.1%)
   aged 68 or older, born 1945 or earlier

Aging is taking a toll on boomers and older Americans. Since 2010, the baby-boom generation has shrunk by 1.1 million, and the number of older Americans has declined by 5.1 million. Generation X is just beginning the downward slide, falling by 207,000. The millennial generation is still growing, however. Thanks to immigration, the number of millennials expanded by 1.4 million between 2010 and 2013.

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