Baby Boomers Aging Into Retirement

More than 10,000 Americans begin their Social Security retirement every day. This staggering number of citizens started leaving the labor force in 2012, and the figures won’t decrease until the last members of the generation known as “baby boomers” reach their 66^th birthdays in 2030.  This is the largest number of people in history to retire.

Baby boomers are people born in this country after the end of World War II. The arbitrary birth dates identifying boomers are January 1, 1946, through December 31, 1964. This 18-year span covers the time when service men and women coming home from WWII decided to start families that were postponed because of the war.

The country’s economy kept improving as the number of couples marrying and having babies grew. The trend of the population to leave crowded cities to live in the suburbs then followed. Increased salaries were the result of a growing economy. By the early 1960’s, families began enjoying the prosperity of the times by buying homes and putting two cars into their garages. Prior to this time, the country continued to suffer economically from the Great Depression that started in 1929. WWII brought the country out of the poor times that resulted from the stock market crash.

Currently, baby boomers make up the second largest generation of people in the U.S. with 74.9 million citizens. The generation known as millennials, people born from 1981 and 1997, surpassed the boomer population in size. Millennials currently make up 75.4 million men and women living in the United States. Baby boomers started turning 70 years old on the first day of 2016 and are dying too fast to keep up with the millennials.

Today the biggest problem facing elderly citizens is having enough money to have an enjoyable retirement. Until the middle of the 20^th century, retirement was not typical for most people. Many people died before they turned 65, the age when Medicare kicks in. Surprisingly, the average age when people are retiring is 63. That’s only one year past the minimum age of 62 when reduced Social Security pay can be received. Presently, people will get the maximum amount of money they are due by retiring at 66 years old. People who retire early typically do so as a hedge against not knowing how long they will live.  

The U.S. birth rate in 1946 was the largest up to then with the first year of baby boomers totaling 3.4 million. Each year’s birth rate increased until the number of births began to decline in 1964, signaling the final year of the baby boomer generation. That’s when boomers were 40 percent of the total U.S. population, and they provided the bulk of the taxes needed to support the country. Today, the bulk of the financial burden needed to support the continuing increase of retiring baby boomers goes to the younger generations.

Improved healthy living habits and better health care keep lengthening the life span of Americans. Statistics put the percentages of the U.S. population 65 years old or older from 13 to 20 percent, depending which source of records you use.

The cost of Social Security taxes is an issue politicians dislike talking about, especially in this presidential election year. It’s becoming more and more of an issue as the baby boomers continue to age.

The Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., supplied information and statistics used in this article.

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