baby boomers

Fifteen years is a long time in the tech world.  In 2011, 30 executives across the tech industry were queried about how technology needed to change to accommodate older adults. Opinions in this AARP-sponsored report were obtained from Intel to HP to Google to Cisco to Microsoft to Philips, from Stanford to Georgia Tech to UCLA as well as multiple futurists and startups. The report is not on the AARP website any more, understandably because it is too old – but can be found here: Connected Living for Social Aging: Designing Technology for All. 

Tech users today span all ages. Published at around the same time as the AARP Tech Trends Survey, Linkage Connect’s Technology Use Among Older Adults stands alone as a surveyor of tech adoption among the oldest.  In fact, 66% of their responses came from adults aged 75-89, the majority of whom are women, many living independently in senior living communities.  Similar to the AARP survey, 93% of responders own a smartphone, mostly an iPhone. When 66% of the responders to a survey, mostly online, some paper, are aged 75-89, it makes one pause and consider what this means in the world of technology marketing.

As they do each year since 2016, AARP surveys the 50+ about tech.  AARP’s new Tech Trends and the 50+ offers a sharp reminder about what’s changed in tech ownership over the past decade. We have moved from desktop computers and simple cell phones, email and browsing to today's plethora of tech choice. The report reflects what we can see all around us – 90% of the 50+ have smartphones, texting is their lead communication method, and 90% use social media.  Unfortunately, the report continues to frame the older adult as age 50+. With a life expectancy at 65 extending into the 80s and beyond, this 35+ year span called ‘older adult’ might as well be replaced with ‘everybody.’ Maybe next year, the report will begin to examine the preferences of the 80+ in detail, as this Link-age Connect 2025 survey does. Why doe it matter? In January, 2026, the baby boomers start to turn 80 -- 10,000 per day for the next 20 years. 

January 2026 is just around the corner.  And so will begin the wave of 73 million baby boomers turning 80 over the next 20 years. Maybe they are all in great shape! Not according to a Johns Hopkins researcher: only 25% are ‘robust and active’.  'The rest are a mix of frail and vulnerable, slowed down by health issues.' And many in their 80s and 90s will be aging in place alone – projected by a Harvard study to exceed 10 million.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) just put out a request for tech ecosystem recommendations – clear understanding that the future for health tech for older adults will be required – and even (!) interoperable. The pace of making all of this happen clearly needs to accelerate.

Baby boomer aging – it’s a big tech opportunity. Today there are 76 million US baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964.  They represent 21 percent of the US population.   73% of all wealth in the United States is concentrated among those over age 55, most of whom are baby boomers.   As the oldest of the baby boomers begin turning 80 in January of 2026, which can generate worry (as in that NY Times post) or be viewed as a market opportunity.   Life expectancy at 65 is on average another 20 years.   Note that 20% of the 65+ today are working.   So what does it all mean?