Article: Retirement Prospects of Baby Boomers.(Statistical Data Included)

The baby-boom generation consists of about 78 million persons who were born from 1946 to 1964 inclusive. This generation represented 29 percent of the 1997 U.S. population, and when it reaches old age, our retirement system and health care institutions could be strained. The Bureau of the Census estimates that there will be twice as many persons age 65 or older in 2030 as there are today: 69 million (20 percent of the population) versus 34 million (13 percent of the population). Likewise, the Bureau's population projection, from its middle series, shows 18 million persons age 85 or older in 2050 (4 1/2 percent of the U.S. population); now, there are less than 4 million ...