About Governing Generations
America is getting older. Fast. Baby boomers -- the 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 -- are rapidly hitting retirement age. The oldest boomers turned 65 last year, and for the next two decades, Americans will hit that age at a rate of 8,000 a day. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, another five boomers will have reached 65.
That massive transition marks an unprecedented demographic upheaval -- and a historic challenge for government. Much of the discussion about the so-called silver tsunami involves the impending pressures on federal entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare. But the wave of aging Americans poses sweeping challenges to states and localities as well.
To examine and analyze these issues, Governing is launching a multiple-part series on aging in A...
What Makes the Boomers the Boomers?
In 1946, less than a year after World War II ended, Americans began to notice something unexpected: The economy was not sinking back into the Great Depression. Rather, to everyone’s surprise, it was growing strongly. And then people noticed something else: lots of babies. Married couples who had put off having kids in the 1930s and during the war were now eager to start a family. Birth rates surged. The nation was ready to grow. “The Great American Boom is on,” announced Fortune magazine that summer.
By the early 1950s, everyone was talking about this “baby boom.” When would it end? Not soon, it turned out. Increasing productivity and rising wages for young workers -- along with new social infrastructure such as suburbs and the interstate system -- kept families growing for another decade and a half. By the mid-1960s, the live-for-today counterculture finally extinguished the urge to marry early and have lots of kids, and the birth rate fell. But by then, America had already experienced a seismic demographic shift unlike anything...
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How Will Boomers Reshape U.S. Cities?
The wave of boomer retirees will transform the way cities look, from the way they grow and sprawl to minutiae such as curb heights and the fonts on street signs.
Read MoreTransit Service for Disabled May Feel Weight of Seniors
Agencies are seeking ways to curb the growing use of expensive paratransit service, but advocates question their methods.
Read MoreTransportation Agencies Turn to Mobility Management
The strategy involves partnering with other agencies and nonprofits to improve convenience for individual riders, especially seniors, and achieve cost savings at the same time.
Read MoreGovernment Unprepared for Boomers’ Mass Exodus
The mass exodus of baby boomers from the workforce has been a crisis in the making for years. Yet in many cases the public sector is still not prepared.
Read MoreBaby Boomers’ Impact on Elections
They hold tremendous influence -- more than half the voting-age population is now over 45 -- but baby boomers and their role at the polls are a bit hard to pin down.
Read MoreQ&A on Senior Housing with Former HUD Secretary
Henry Cisneros discusses his new book on senior housing and what local and federal governments need to do to address the housing needs of seniors.
Read MoreSenior Job Training: Growing Need, Shrinking Budgets
As Americans work longer, state and local officials worry a senior job training program doesn’t have the funding to meet its demand.
Read MorePoverty Among Seniors Getting Harder to Ignore
The gap between what seniors need to live on versus what they have might land squarely on state and local governments. For more on aging in America, go to governing.com/generations.
Read MoreSenior Health
Affordable Housing
Government Management