The US will experience a “silver tsunami” this year when a record number of Americans turn 65.
A report released this month shows that 4.1 million Americans will reach the milestone this year, with the increase continuing through 2027.
It means that 11,200 American adults are turning 65 every day, compared to 10,000 a decade ago – a difference of about 12 percent.
This feat has been achieved thanks to medical advances and better diets and behaviors over the past century, which have helped the nation’s more than 61 million baby boomers age.
But the findings come amid signs that America is in decline, as life expectancy overall has lagged far behind the rest of the developed world since the Covid-19 pandemic.
A record 4.1 million Americans are expected to turn 65 this year, even as life expectancy falls sharply
The Census Bureau estimates that the youngest boomers will turn 65 in 2029, with the total baby boomer population reaching approximately 61.3 million.
Even though the US is the richest country in the world, people born in Colombia, Estonia and China today can expect to live longer than the average American.
Experts now estimate that the average American will live to just 77 years, the lowest in nearly 30 years, compared to 80 in Britain, 81.6 in Canada and 83 in Australia.
The research team of Alliance for a Lifelong Income said that while 2024 will be a “historic” year for the record number of over-65s, the news is not all positive.
Cyrus Bamji, chief strategy officer of the Alliance of Lifetime Income, said: “Peak 65 is a historic moment.
The tail end of the baby boom generation is starting to turn 65, and unfortunately most of them are retiring unprotected, with a safety net full of holes.”
‘At best, many of them will not be able to maintain the lifestyle they want after retirement. At worst, they face the prospect of outliving their savings.”
The expected ‘silver tsunami’ is due to the aging of the baby boomers.
Shortly after the end of World War II, the number of births in the US increased sharply in an effort to strengthen the post-war economy.
This resulted in the birth of 76 million babies between 1946 and 1964, with 3.4 to four million births occurring each year.
The Census Bureau estimates that the youngest boomers will turn 65 in 2029, with the total baby boomer population reaching approximately 61.3 million.
Experts conducting the Alliance for Lifetime Income study also estimate that the number of people over 65 will also increase to roughly 4.18 million by 2025. As more and more boomers cross this threshold, the number of people reaching 65 will begin to shrink, reaching 3.88 million by 2030.
Although the US is recovering from a sharp rise in Covid deaths, the country still ranks far below other developed countries. Even taking into account the recent increase in life expectancy, countries like Japan, France and Sweden rank much higher
Although more and more Americans are reaching this milestone, experts warn 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 range of other health statistics in 48 developed countries for the period 2019 to 2022.
With a life expectancy of 76.4 years, America ranks 34th – 15th from the bottom – and well below the OECD average of 80.3 years. This marked the country as the worst of all developed countries.
The report shows that the United States has fallen behind countries plagued by crime and violence, such as Colombia, which has never topped the U.S. in OECD reports since its inclusion in 2015.
The researchers attributed America’s low life expectancy to obesity, heart disease, alcohol consumption, smoking and diabetes.
Moreover, increases in suicides and homicides, plus a fivefold increase in 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, although experts warned the US recovery was slower than its peers.
Dr. Elizabeth Arias, a researcher who worked on a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said it will “take some time before we get back to 2019 levels, before the pandemic.”
However, the CDC report did show that life expectancy did increase slightly in 2022 from 76.4 to 77.5.
Life stressors can also explain declining life expectancy.
For example, there are still more Americans who have reached retirement age.
According to a report from Pew Research CenterIn 2023, almost 20 percent of people over 65 had a job, almost double the number that worked 35 years ago.
Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew who worked on the study, told the Wall Street Journal, “More of them are working and they tend to work longer hours.”
He estimated that nearly two-thirds of workers age 65 and older work full-time, up from nearly half in 1987.
Additionally, a 2022 study found that divorce rates among those over 65 have more than tripled since 1990, which could lead to increased stress.
However, CDC research also found that more 65-year-olds met federal physical activity guidelines in 2018 than in 1998, potentially leading to longer lifespans.