Institute For The Future

As boomers move into their 60s and 70s over the next 20 years, they will not only carry their revolutionary history with them. They will extend it into a new realm. Biology, the very basis of human life, will be up for grabs as boomers make choices about physical aging that no previous generation has had to make.

They will weigh these choices in a world fraught with dilemmas: a rapidly deteriorating environment, shifts in global economic power, the decline of legacy institutions that they have both opposed and worked within, the meteoric advance of technologies that confer advantage on the youngest members of society, and perhaps even the loss of faith in science as the basis for a rational society. They may face growing opposition to entitlements by younger workers who feel burdened by the seemingly privileged lifestyles of boomers. They will stand divided by the great gap in wealth within their own ranks.

The Boomers map is a first view of this new era of boomer experience. It would be a mistake to call this a map of aging or even a map of boomers as they age. After all, every aspect of aging is in flux. Rather, this is a map of the changing human lifecycle as it will be lived first by nearly 77 million people who just happened to be born in those seemingly quiet years following World War II. It’s a map of the boomers’ next 20 years, yes—but it’s also a preview of life to come for us all.