Updated Statistics Describe Baby Boomers

For the first time in 13 years, the US Census Bureau has released a collection of statistics on the Baby Boomer generation, those people ages 42-60 years old in the year 2006.

• There were 77,980,296 Baby Boomers living in the US in 2006 (50.9% women). That number is
  projected to be 57,793,135 in the year 2030 (an estimated 54.9% will be women).
• The states with the highest number of people ages 42-60 years were California, Texas, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania. The states with the highest percentage-of-population of Boomers were Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Montana and Connecticut.
• Among the Boomers, 89.7% were non-Hispanic and 10.3% were Hispanic.
• An educated group, 29.8% were high school graduates, 28.9% had some college and 28.8% had a bachelor’s degree or higher. A much smaller number (12.5%) had less than a high school degree.
• Most Baby Boomers (74.1%) were employed; 22.4% were not in the labor force. The remainder were in military service or unemployed. In the prior 12 months, household income came from earnings (91.8%), retirement income (11.3%), Social Security (10.4%) and food stamps (6.9%).
• Two-thirds were homeowners living in their homes and 25% rented.

Source: ICAA Research Review: December 2009, Volume 9, No. 43