Baby Boomers changing demographics of Age 50 Plus group.

With baby boomers turning age 50 at the rate of 10,000 a day the 50 and over segment of the population is growing rapidly and becoming better educated and more affluent with each passing day.

In the 87 metro markets surveyed regularly by The Media Audit the number of men and women age 50 and over has increased from 44.6 million to 51.1 million in the past five years. “The age 50 plus group is experiencing rapid and significant demographic changes,” says Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, Inc., a 34-year-old market research firm which produces The Media Audit.

Education & Income

The percentage of the group with at least one college degree has increased from 32.5 percent or 14.6 million to 36.3 percent or 19.3 million since 2000. The percentage that earns $50,000 or more has increased from 32.7 percent to 37.7 percent. Those with annual incomes of $75,000 or more increased from17.8 percent to 22.1 percent and those with household incomes of $100,000 or more increased from 9.5 to 12.8.

“The figures are even more impressive,” says Jordan, “when you consider that almost half of the total of 51.1 million men and women 50 and older are retired.” The actual number of retirees in this group is 23.4 million and they have an average annual household income of a little more than $42,000.

Almost half (46.5 percent) of the retirees have liquid assets of $250,000 or more. Collectively the liquid assets have a total value of at least $250 billion.

Within the age 50 plus segment of the population, 82.3 percent own their home compared to 69.2 in the general population. And 4.3 percent plan to buy a home during the next two years. That compares to 7.0 percent of all adults. Three percent expect to pay $30,000 or more for their next automobile. They drink less beer and more wine than do all adults.

Approximately 15.8 percent said they drank wine on 3 days during the previous two weeks. Twenty nine percent visited a gambling casino during the past year compared to 26.8 percent of all adults.

“The numbers make it pretty clear that the baby boomers don’t stop spending money when they turn age 50,” says Jordan. “A lot of their ‘plan to buy’ numbers are very comparable to those of the general adult population.”

For more information at http://www.TheMediaAudit.com