Demographics: The Population Hourglass

By: Andrew ZolliWed Dec 19, 2007 at 8:08 AM

Your future is older, browner, and more feminine than you might have realized. That will make for some major lifestyle changes ("Welcome home, Mom!") and lots of huge opportunities for business.

The demographic concentration of boomers at the top of the population pyramid represents the next American gold rush.

Related Content

Finally, while the workplace undergoes tremendous change, so will the American family. Thanks to boomer retirees who've outlived their income--or failed to save any of it--many families are going to get bigger. Consider Florida: While most of us think of it as a geriatric haven, in recent decades the number of seniors exiting the state has steadily increased, in many cases because they can no longer afford to stay. (To deal with this, MetLife started offering longevity insurance in 2004, a fixed deferred-income annuity to help insure seniors against "the biggest risk they will face in retirement: longevity risk." )

Where will boomers go when they run out of money? In many cases, the answer will be, home to live with their kids. In fact, according to some projections, a woman born after 1980 is likely to take care of her mother longer than she cares for her own children. (Perhaps MetLife will get around to "mother-in-law" insurance.) As those boomers move back in, they'll redefine the family from a two-generation "nuclear" family to a three- or even four-generation affair, a return to the beginning of the 20th century.

These new multigenerational families will be a fertile new market for everything from new senior-plus-family transportation (call it "the Clan-agon") to travel, entertainment, cooking, and shopping. Health-care and financial-services companies will find themselves speaking not only to their senior customers but to their family members, who form an extended-care network.

Oh, and it's not just your parents who may be living with you. Your kids may be there, too. Millennials fully expect to live forever, which gives them plenty of time to drag out each stage of life, starting with a nice prolonged "twixter" adolescence. For some, this will last well into their thirties.

You won't have to worry about a babysitter, though: Grandma plays a mean game of Grand Theft Auto.

Futurist Andrew Zolli is the founder of Z + Partners, a strategy consulting firm, and curator of the annual PopTech conference. He was a member of the Fast 50 class of 2005.