According to Fortune, the oldest baby boomers, born starting in 1946, will begin turning 80 in 2026, a group that includes figures like Cher, Dolly Parton, and former presidents Trump, Bush, and Clinton. This generation, about 76 million strong, benefited from postwar prosperity and helped create a consumer-driven economy. Now, their aging is accelerating a major demographic shift where the share of seniors in the U.S. is projected to grow from 18.7% in 2025 to nearly 23% by 2050, while the under-18 population shrinks. A key driver is a plummeting fertility rate, which has dropped from 2.08 in 2008 to just 1.6 in 2025. This is creating a stark economic contrast, as boomer Diane West notes her generation had jobs waiting after college, while her grandson cites financial instability and the need for multiple roommates just to afford housing.
The milestone gap
Here’s the thing that really drives the point home. In 1975, almost half of 25-to-34-year-olds had hit the classic adult milestones: moved out, landed a job, gotten married, had kids. By the early 2020s, less than a quarter had. That’s a seismic shift in just a couple of generations. West, who is featured in the article, basically sums it up: she got out of college, got married, and had babies young. Her kids waited until their 30s to marry. And her 21-year-old grandson lives with her. The timeline has stretched out, or maybe even broken entirely, for a lot of young people. It’s not about laziness; it’s about the math not working anymore. A master’s degree and a fast-food job isn’t the plot of a quirky indie film—it’s a real-life holding pattern for plenty of graduates.
The economic squeeze is real
So what does this mean for the economy? It’s a double-whammy. Fewer young workers paying into the system have to support a ballooning number of retirees. The article notes that in 2025, about 34 seniors are supported by every 100 workers. In about 30 years, that jumps to 50 per 100. Compare that to 1973, when West started her career in retirement planning—back then, it was 20 or fewer retirees per 100 workers. That’s an unsustainable trajectory for programs like Social Security and Medicare. And you see the political reaction starting to form, with figures like JD Vance and Elon Musk pushing for policies to boost fertility, though demographers like William Frey are skeptical such incentives work. His take? Just make it easier and less expensive for the people who already want kids. Seems like a more humane starting point, doesn’t it?
A different kind of legacy
It’s weird to think about. The generation that blissed out at Woodstock and didn’t trust anyone over 30 is now the establishment, watching their grandkids navigate a world they helped shape but can’t quite recognize. They were the “me” generation, but the “me” in that equation had access to cheap housing and waiting jobs. Now, the focus is just on stability. The demographic math is cold and clear: without immigration, the U.S. population starts shrinking in five years. Longer lives and lower birth rates are reshaping everything. The boomers had the spotlight, as demographer Frey says. But the final act of their story is leaving a much more complicated, and frankly harder, stage for the generations that follow.
