The World Is Changing Boomers

In their youth, boomers believed they were going to change the world. They managed to shake things up a bit, but now the tables have turned. A grim Census Bureau report shows how the world is changing boomers.

The baby-boom generation numbered 76 million in 2012. Only 60 million will remain by 2030. A minuscule 2 million boomers will still be around in 2060 to recall the good old days of Woodstock and Watergate. In 2012, boomers accounted for a substantial 24 percent of the American population. By 2060 they will have been reduced to a blip—just 0.6 percent of the population. No one will know what a "baby boomer" is anymore.

But before they exit the scene, boomers will shake things up one more time. Because boomers are overwhelmingly non-Hispanic white, says the Census Bureau, "their projected declines due to mortality will contribute to projected decreases in the percentage of the population in the non-Hispanic white alone category. This pattern, coupled with increases in immigration and births to minority populations, is projected to produce an increasingly diverse population in years to come." In other words, the passing of each boomer will make the United States a bit more multicultural. Boomers are changing the world after all.

Source: Census Bureau, The Baby Boom Cohort in the United States: 2012 to 2060