Millennials and Gen Z consumers are highly coveted among every major CPG brand and media outlet in America. But, is this smart business? What about the “AARP” crowd?
Marketers have always shied away from the “silver” crowd, but doing so could reduce the amount of gold they can strike by actively targeting an ever-active group of 60+ Americans.
Based on new data from Pew Research Center, ignoring elder Americans in the coming years would be very bad business: Older adults are projected to outnumber kids for the first time in U.S. history.
Already, the middle-aged outnumber children, but the country will reach a new milestone in 2035.
That year, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that older adults will edge out children in population size: People age 65 and over are expected to number 78 million, while children under the age of 18 will number 76.4 million.
This demographic transformation caused by a rapidly aging population is new for the United States but not for other countries. Japan has the world’s oldest population, where more than one in four people are at least 65 years old. Already, its population has started to decline and, by 2050, it is projected to shrink by 20 million people.
Europe is headed down the same demographic path. Some countries in Western Europe have populations that are older than the U.S., notably Germany, Italy, France and Spain. Countries in Eastern Europe are even further along and, within a few years, many of their populations are projected to begin shrinking.
America has been different, until now.
Higher fertility and more international migration have helped stave off an aging population and the country has remained younger as a result. But those trends are changing. Americans are having fewer children and the baby boom of the 1950s and 1960s has yet to be repeated. Fewer babies, coupled with longer life expectancy equals a country that ages faster.
Although declining fertility plays a role, the driving force behind America’s aging is the baby boomers. As one of the largest generations in the country, boomers leave a substantial imprint on the population. They swelled the ranks of the young when they were born and then the workforce as they entered adulthood.
Now, boomers will expand the number of older adults as they age. Starting in 2030, when all boomers will be older than 65, older Americans will make up 21% of the population, up from 15% today.
By 2060, nearly one in four Americans will be 65 years and older, the number of 85-plus will triple, and the country will add a half million centenarians.
