Defining baby boomers

Demographics
The baby boom demographic phenomenon was an explosion of new births in the twenty years immediately following the end of World War Two. Similar population explosions occurred in a number of countries, including Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada and, arguably, the UK (which had two population spikes during the period, rather than a sustained “hump”, but overall saw a marked population increase). In general, the baby booms increased national populations by up to 100% at the time of their births. The boom tailed off in the mid-1960s, and while cut off dates varied across countries, they are commonly standardised around 1964. The end of the baby boom is partly attributed to the introduction of the contraceptive pill and the entrance of women into the workforce in large numbers.

Statistics New Zealand defines baby boomers as New Zealanders born between 1 January 1946 and 31 December 1965 (Statistics New Zealand, 1995a). During this twenty year period, 1.125 million babies were born in the country, almost doubling the population (which was just 1.7 million in 1946). By 1991, baby boomers comprised 30% of the population and they currently comprise more than a quarter of the population. By 2031, all of the baby boomers will be over 65 and will make up 21.3% of the population (Statistics New Zealand, 1995a), the largest “elderly” population in New Zealand’s history.

Australia likewise uses a 1946-1965 timeframe for defining its 5.5 million baby boomers, with a peak birth year of 1946. By 2030, 47% of Australia’s wealth will be held by people over 65 (Quine & Carter, 2006).

The UK, which saw a large birth spike in 1946 and another at the end of the baby boom, defines the baby boom as being from 1945 to 1965, with 18.5 million babies born in the 20-year period. Today there are 17 million baby boomers in the UK, comprising 29% of the population (Huber & Skidmore, 2003).

In the USA, the definition is Americans born between 1 January 1946 and 31 December 1964, a total of 78 million people now comprising more than a quarter of the US population (US Census Bureau, 2006). Americans currently in their 50s or older earn more than $2 trillion annually and control 70% of the country’s personal financial assets (Dychtwald, 2005b).

International research convention among baby boomer studies is to include all residents in the country who are in the target age range, regardless of whether they were born in that country or immigrated at some point since 1946, and also regardless of whether they belong to groups that did not experience a baby boom. For example, Hispanic people in the USA did not experience a baby boom; Australia experienced a large immigration surge in the 1950s and 1960, mainly from Italy and Greece; In New Zealand, Maori had high birth rates throughout the first half of the 20th century, so did not experience the population spike that occurred in the New Zealand European population (Statistics New Zealand, 1995). The reason for including groups not born into baby booms is that they were still to varying degrees raised or living in the same environment with the same influences as the main baby boomer population and they will continue to be part of the affected population.

Baby boomers are demographically characterised as better educated, healthier and better off financially than predecessor generations. They also come from more ethnically diverse backgrounds and display more diversity of household types than their parents (Statistics New Zealand, 1995).

Generational cohort
“When baby boomers reach any stage of life, the issues that concern them – whether financial, interpersonal, or even hormonal – become the dominant social, political, and marketplace themes of the time. Boomers don’t just populate existing life stages or consumer trends – they transform them” (Dychtwald, 2005b).

Smith and Clurman (2007) define a generational cohort as, “a sociological concept referring to a group of people who grew up and came of age together”. This is based on a view that people develop their lifelong core values and attitudes from the experiences of their formative years, and those collective experiences unite communities of people of the same age into a definable character.

“The prevailing social environment created by these dynamics is the starting point that imbues a generation with a particular set of values from which it begins to understand its place, its opportunities, and its potential” (Smith & Clurman, 2007). Smith and Clurman suggest it is within this context that baby boomers have learned “what’s possible, what’s valuable and what it takes to get things done”.

While only a tiny number of early boomers protested the Vietnam War, and New Zealand’s level of involvement in this event differed from the US experience, all baby boomers were called upon to form views about it. The Apollo space programme was one of the first such milestone formative experiences to be communicated all around the world, following the advent of television across the developed world. Young baby boomers everywhere saw the world from space for the first time and were all influenced by the experience, even though only a very tiny number of people in just one country were actually engaged in the event.

Demographic theorists and economists define the baby boomer generation by the years they were born and the life stages and milestones they share, such as going to school, starting families and retiring. However, while these are important markers, all generations experience them; it is the character of how a population responds to life stages and milestones that differentiates a generational cohort from a generation.

There is diversity within the baby boomer generation and not all people born in the timeframe will necessarily identify with all of the characteristics that define the cohort. Quantitative studies measure the proportion of respondents who agree with defining characteristics and, where the proportions are large, the characteristics can be said to be representative of the cohort as a whole.

According to Smith and Clurman (2007), the character of a generational cohort “sets the tone for what it’s like to live and work in those times”.

Most generational cohort theorists consider the formative influences for baby boomers to comprise societal events: the Vietnam War, Woodstock, Apollo, JFK and Martin Luther King Jr, the Beatles and rock music for older boomers; television, economic shocks from oil and financial markets, Watergate, punk and pop music for younger boomers. In this contextual framework, the temptation to split the baby boomer cohort in two is understandable. Smith and Clurman (2007) however, posit the view that it is an overwhelming climate of sustained economic prosperity that formed the baby boomer cohort and continues to unite it in what they call a “psychology of affluence”.

To support this view of the importance of economic prosperity in forging the baby boomer character, Smith and Clurman acknowledged the impact of pop culture and politics, but ranked those things third, behind the economy and technology (first) and demographics (second).