About Baby Boomers

• Approximately 77 million babies were born in the U.S. during the “boom” years of 1946-1964. (US Dept. of Health & Human Services)
  
  
• In January 2006, the first boomers will turn 60. In 2011, the oldest baby boomers will turn 65, and, on average can expect to live to 83.
  
  
• One in four Americans is a baby boomer. This is the largest population group in U.S. history.
  
  
• A baby boomer turns 50 every 18 seconds and 60 every 7 seconds.
  
  
• Baby boomers comprise 28% of the U.S. population, nearly 3 in 10 Americans.
  
  
• Half of all baby boomers and 2/3 of younger boomers have children under 18 living in their household. More than one third of boomers care for an older parent. (AARP)
  
  
• Boomers are concentrated in metropolitan areas, as opposed to rural counties. Regionally, they are more highly concentrated in New England, the Mid-Atlantic States the upper Great Lake states and the Pacific Northwest. (U.S. Census Bureau)

Baby Boomers and Volunteering

• Nearly a third of all boomers – comprising some 25.8 million people – volunteered for a formal organization in 2005. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
  
  
• At 33.2%, the volunteer rate for baby boomers is the highest of any generational age group, and more than four percentage points above the national average of 28.8%. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
  
  
• A typical boomer volunteer serves 51 hours a year, or approximately one hour a week. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
  
  
• The percentage of retired baby boomers who volunteered increased steadily, from approximately 25% in 2002 to approximately 30% in 2004. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
  
  
• Volunteering tends to peak at mid-life, around the current age of baby boomers, and then decline slightly; declining further among the oldest old (typically 75+).
  
  
• The biggest single inducement for baby boomers to volunteer is being asked by someone with whom one has an established relationship.
  
  
• Baby boomers are less likely than older age groups to volunteer out of a sense of duty or obligation and more likely to volunteer as part of a social interaction.
  
  
• Baby boomers are more likely to volunteer as a result of social, self development, self-esteem, or leisure-focused motivations. Episodic, familiar, community-based opportunities are also preferred.
  
  
• Four out of five boomers see work as playing a role in their retirement years, with only 20% anticipating retiring and not working at all (AARP):
  
  
  • Of U.S. workers over 45, 69% plan to work in some capacity during retirement, with only 28% expecting not to work at all.
  • More than 75% of workers 45+ feel that work is important to their self-esteem.

(Research taken from the 2004 “Reinventing Aging – Baby Boomers and Civic Engagement” report, Harvard School of Public Health & MetLife Foundation Initiative on Retirement and Civic Engagement, unless otherwise cited.)