culture medium vent like to poke merriment at the baby manna from heaven generation . Headlines such as " baby boomer Hit New ego - Absorption Milestone : Age 65 " mock this splendidly self - reflective demographic . From theirdiaperdays to their draw near dotage , the boomers have been history ’s most documented generation . In the ' sixty , when the first boomers were entering adulthood , theircivil rightssit - ins andWoodstockantics made headline . In 1986 , the first boomers change by reversal 40 , and Time Magazine ran a cover story on them . As boomer make retirement age , the media fury continues with clause after clause on how youth - minded boomer are redefine former age .
What have infant boomers done to warrant such tending ? First , they were the first generation weaned on television . corroboration itself was rotatory . secondly , their sheer numbers give them a vast market contribution ; it ’s no wonder the media – and their advertiser – are interested in scrutinise and cater to one of the largest demographics alive today . Finally , baby boomer started off with a knock . In their youthfulness , many of them marched for civil right and some resist the Vietnam War .
So , who on the nose are these baby boomer ? We ’ll try out a heap of baby baby boomer facts in the next incision .
Baby Boomer Facts
After World War II , youthful sept settle down to the business of throw babies – lots of babe . From 1946 to 1964 , America saw an unprecedented increase in natality . These U.S. shaver became known as the babe baby boomer generation . This huge bunch traverse the gamut socially , politically and economically ; nevertheless , boomers share a few vulgar ties . Here are a few of our favorites , good manners of a 2006 sight of baby boomers guide by theU.S. CensusBureau :
Though it ’s impossible to know for sure which child was the very first somebody born into the baby boomer contemporaries , there are a duad of hard competition . USA Today credits Kathleen Casey - Kirschling , born one second past midnight on Jan. 1 , 1946 , as the original baby boomer [ root : Welch . ] The New York Times , on the other hand , credits Aloysius Nachreiner ( screw as Al , or sometimes Butch ) of Buffalo , N.Y. , with the distinction [ author : Barry ] .
The past three sitting American president – Bill Clinton , George W. Bush and Barack Obama – are babe baby boomer ; however , Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney , two of the most famous musician of the boomer ’s heyday , actually go to the pre - boomer " silent " generation .
bit and facts can only say part of the baby boomer ’s storey . We ’ll meet in the gap with some sister baby boomer characteristics on the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
Baby Boomer Characteristics
Probably more than anything else , baby boomer are known as social and political rabble - rousers . As writer Leonard Steinhorn argues , " A better America is the unfeigned legacy of the infant boom multiplication . " Here are just a few of the noteworthy causes relate with the baby boomer propagation :
disillusion by the Vietnam War and the dire economic clime of the ' 70s , baby boomers traded revolution for recreation as the ' LXX came to a close . Rock ' n ' roll made means for disco and the sexual rotation took hold . nickname the " me " and the " now " generation , the idealists of the ' 60s became the yuppie of the ' 80 . Nevertheless , the honest-to-goodness optimism still informs the medium ’s portrait of the boomer coevals . " Jack & Bobby , " a dead - hold out WB television series , asterisk Christine Lahti as professor Grace McCallister , the quintessential baby baby boomer : an dynamic , youthful , ultraliberal history prof devote to feminist movement and her many other pet effort .
Even fact - driven CNN begins an article on the boomers ' precarious financial situation as they pass retirement with an anecdote about aging boomers acting like youngsters " trip the light fantastic wildly and waving their blazon in the air to the unintelligible lyrics of ' Louie , Louie ' " [ beginning : Trickey ] . Indeed , as the first babe boomers border on retirement years , the evidence suggest that they do n’t plan on going quietly . Read all about baby baby boomer retiring in the next section .
Baby Boomers Retiring
On Jan. 1 , 2011 , the first infant baby boomer began grow 65 . For the next 19 years , about 10,000 boomers will reach that milepost every individual day [ source : Barry ] . Boomers are n’t going gently into that good night , however . rather , they are , as Dan Barry says in The New York Times , " redefine what it means to be sr. . " For one thing , they are n’t retiring from the workforce at 65 the way of life their parents did . For another , exercise , healthy feeding and preventive practice of medicine make them the level-headed gang of fledgling retiree the macrocosm has ever seen . They do n’t reckon older , and they do n’t act old . For babe boomer , 60 is the fresh 40 and " Grandma " is " Glam - Ma " [ source : Zissu ] .
Not everything is coming up rosebush for boomers , however . In 2008 , a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) discipline on depressive disorder demonstrate a nigh 20 percent increase in suicide rates for adult aged 45 to 54 . For women in this age group , the pace gain jump off to 31 per centum [ source : Clark ] . Researchers are investigating the increased used of prescription drug as a potential cause . Another theory is that boomers simply have n’t lived up to the high-flown aspirations of their youth . Boomers are also ill - disposed financially forretirementcompared to their precursor . Whether because of inadequate planning or because their well - pose plans were derailed by ostentation in the ' 80s , the dot - com bust of the ' 90s and the recession of the ' 00s , many boomers are approaching retreat eld without a significant nest egg .
It would be a fault , however , to assume that they ’re approaching the end of sprightliness with a fizzle . Countering the news show about increased suicide rate for baby baby boomer are the results of a late Gallup canvass , which show a pronounced addition in overall happiness starting around age 50 [ germ : Cohen ] . With a generation as large as that of the baby boomer , it is completely plausible that their mode might pasture from happy to despairing , just as they themselves span the gamut between liberal revolutionary and steadfast conservative .
One affair ’s for sure : As boomers retire and begin to pretend the resources of entitlement programme like Social Security and Medicare , they are once again force a interior conversation on public policy . Who knows ? Maybe the debate will sparkle some of that old ingenuity , and the baby boomer will come up with a novel way around or through the question .
Still curious about this illustrious ( and sometimes infamous ) generation ? guide over to the next Thomas Nelson Page for a wealth of infant boomer - related content .
