Millennials set to outnumber Boomers this year - with immigrant boost
WASHINGTON D.C. (Christian Examiner) – Teens who came of age in the Baby Boom "hippie generation" now have offspring who outnumber them, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections.
About 75.3 million Millennials (ages 18 to 34 as of 2015) are to outnumber the 74.9 million Boomers (ages 51 to 69 this year), which once were the largest generation, and even Boomers' children, the GenXers (ages 35-50 this year) are projected to outnumber their parents by 2028.
"The Millennial generation continues to grow as young immigrants expand their ranks," said Richard Fry of the Pew Research Center. "Boomers – a generation defined by the boom in U.S. births following World War II – are older and shrinking in size as the number of deaths exceed the number of older immigrants arriving in the country."
The Census Bureau released its projections in December. Demographic identifications from the beginning of the 20th century start with the Greatest Generation, born before 1928; the Silent Generation born between 1928-45; the Baby Boom Generation, born before 1946-64; Generation X, born between 1965-80; and the Millennial Generation, born between 1981-97. For Pew's purposes with this study, Post-Millennials are those born since 1998.
Boomers gave birth to the largest number of children – 76 million – but those numbers have been dwarfed by immigration, Pew noted, relying of statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National center for Health Statistics.
The Silent Generation gave birth to 47 million children; Boomers, 76 million; Gen-X, 55 million; Millennial, 66 million; and Post-Millennial, 61 million.
Baby Boomers peaked at 78.8 million in 1999. By 2014, that number had declined to 75.4. By 2050, it is expected to dwindle to 16.6 million.