The US will experience a ‘silver tsunami’ this year when a record number of Americans turn 65.
A report published this month found that 4.1 million Americans will reach the milestone this year, with the surge continuing through 2027.
It means that 11,200 US adults turn 65 every day compared to 10,000 a decade ago – a difference of about 12 percent.
The feat has been achieved thanks to medical advancements, better diets, and behaviors in the past century, which have helped the country’s more than 61 million Baby Boomers grow older.
But the findings come amid signs that America is moving backwards, as life expectancy overall has fallen far behind the rest of the developed world since the Covid-19 pandemic.
A record-high 4.1 million Americans are expected to turn 65 this year, even as life expectancy sharply declines
The Census Bureau estimates that the youngest boomers will turn 65 by 2029, with the total baby-boom population reaching roughly 61.3 million
Even though the US is the richest country in the world, people born today in Colombia, Estonia, and China can expect to live longer than the average American.
Experts now estimate that the average American will live to just 77 years, the lowest number in nearly 30 years, compared to 80 in the UK, 81.6 in Canada, and 83 in Australia.
The research team from Alliance for Lifetime Income said that while 2024 is going to be a ‘historic’ year to the record number of over-65s, the news isn’t all positive.
Cyrus Bamji, chief strategy officer for the Alliance of Lifetime Income, said: ‘Peak 65 is a historic moment.
The tail end of the Baby Boomer generation is starting to turn 65, and unfortunately, most of them are flying into retirement unprotected, with a safety net full of holes.’
‘At best, many of them won’t be able to maintain the lifestyle they want in retirement. At worst, they face the prospect of outliving their savings.’
The projected ‘silver tsunami’ is due to the aging Baby Boomer population.
Shortly after World War II ended, the number of births in the US sharply increased in an effort to strengthen the postwar economy.
This resulted in 76 million babies being born between 1946 to 1964, with 3.4 to four million births occurring each year.
The Census Bureau estimates that the youngest boomers will turn 65 by 2029, with the total baby-boom population reaching roughly 61.3 million.
Experts conducting the Alliance for Lifetime Income research also estimated that the number of over-65s will also increase in 2025 to roughly 4.18 million. As more and more Boomers cross this threshold, the number of people reaching 65 will begin to dwindle, dropping down to 3.88 million in 2030.
Though the US is recovering from a surge in Covid deaths, the country still ranks far below other developed nations. Even taking into account the recent increase in life expectancy, nations like Japan, France, and Sweden rank far higher
Though more Americans are reaching this milestone, experts warn that they may not live as long as their predecessors.
A 2023 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) compared life expectancy and a series of other health metrics in 48 developed countries for 2019 through 2022.
America’s life expectancy of 76.4 put it in 34th place – 15th from the bottom – and far short of the OECD average of 80.3 years. This marked it the worst out of all developed countries.
The report found the United States fell behind countries plagued with crime and violence, such as Colombia, which has never topped the US in the OECD’s reports since it began being included in 2015.
The researchers attributed America’s low life expectancy to obesity rates, heart disease, alcohol consumption, smoking, and diabetes.
Additionally, increases in suicides and homicides, plus a five-fold increase in drug overdose deaths over the past decade – fueled by a rise in fentanyl contamination – have also contributed to the decline.
The Covid-19 pandemic was also largely to blame, though experts warned that the US was slower to recover than its peer nations.
Dr Elizabeth Arias, a researcher who worked on a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, said it will take ‘some time before we’re back to where we were in 2019, before the pandemic.’
However, the CDC report did show that life expectancy in 2022 did increase slightly from 76.4 to 77.5.
Life stressors could also explain the dwindling life expectancy.
For example, more Americans at retirement age are still working.
According to a report from Pew Research Center, nearly 20 percent of over-65s were employed in 2023, almost double the amount who still worked 35 years ago.
Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew who worked on the study, told the Wall Street Journal: ‘More are working and tending to work more hours.’
He estimated that nearly two-thirds of 65 and older employees are working full time, compared with nearly half that in 1987.
Additionally, a 2022 study found that the divorce rate among over-65s has more than tripled since 1990, which could lead to more stress.
However, CDC research has also found that more 65-year-olds met federal physical activity guidelines in 2018 compared to 1998, potentially leading to longer lifespans.
