NOTE: This post has been updated to show the total number of baby boomers in each state and what percentage each state occupies of the national total. See the table at the bottom of the post for state-by-state numbers.
Perhaps no segment of the population has felt the recession and recent financial crisis more than baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964. Of the estimated 80.9 million Americans who fit into this category, many are on the cusp of retirement or of retirement age. But will they be able to retire any time soon?
According to a study highlighted in The Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post, maybe not.
Policy makers have long worried that Americans aren’t saving enough for old age. And lately, current and prospective retirees have been hit on many fronts at once: They have less money, they earn less on what they have, their houses aren’t rising in value and the prospect of working longer to make up the shortfall has dimmed significantly in a lousy job market.
To find out where baby boomers are most concentrated throughout the US, we used the demographic data inside EMSI’s GIS tool.
The most heavily concentrated state is Maine, with an LQ of 1.18 — meaning it has 18 percent more baby boomers, per capita, than the nation. An LQ of 1.0 indicates a group accounts for an average percentage of the total population. See the following table for LQs of every state, as well as the total number of boomers and percentage relative to the national total (80,908,437).
Four of the six states with biggest presence of baby boomers are in the Northeast. Montana and West Virginia also have a large concentration of 45 to 64 year olds.
Meanwhile, Utah and Texas are the least concentrated with baby boomers, although Texas has the second-highest percentage (7.3%) of the nation’s boomers. They seem to be in the best position — along with Arizona and DC — to avoid a major baby-boomer crisis.
| State | 45-64-Year-Old Population (2010) | Location Quotient | % of Nation's Boomers |
|---|---|---|---|
| California (CA) | 9,232,738 | 0.94 | 11.4% |
| Texas (TX) | 5,899,576 | 0.90 | 7.3% |
| New York (NY) | 5,303,922 | 1.04 | 6.6% |
| Florida (FL) | 4,987,572 | 1.01 | 6.2% |
| Pennsylvania (PA) | 3,524,079 | 1.07 | 4.4% |
| Illinois (IL) | 3,344,669 | 0.99 | 4.1% |
| Ohio (OH) | 3,180,756 | 1.05 | 3.9% |
| Michigan (MI) | 2,787,767 | 1.07 | 3.4% |
| Georgia (GA) | 2,482,912 | 0.95 | 3.1% |
| North Carolina (NC) | 2,472,867 | 1.00 | 3.1% |
| New Jersey (NJ) | 2,417,685 | 1.06 | 3.0% |
| Virginia (VA) | 2,106,298 | 1.01 | 2.6% |
| Massachusetts (MA) | 1,843,831 | 1.07 | 2.3% |
| Washington (WA) | 1,820,038 | 1.03 | 2.2% |
| Tennessee (TN) | 1,695,819 | 1.02 | 2.1% |
| Indiana (IN) | 1,695,219 | 1.01 | 2.1% |
| Arizona (AZ) | 1,614,899 | 0.91 | 2.0% |
| Missouri (MO) | 1,609,809 | 1.02 | 2.0% |
| Maryland (MD) | 1,577,060 | 1.05 | 1.9% |
| Wisconsin (WI) | 1,570,438 | 1.06 | 1.9% |
| Minnesota (MN) | 1,440,472 | 1.04 | 1.8% |
| Colorado (CO) | 1,337,038 | 1.01 | 1.7% |
| Alabama (AL) | 1,245,100 | 1.01 | 1.5% |
| South Carolina (SC) | 1,228,200 | 1.02 | 1.5% |
| Kentucky (KY) | 1,169,179 | 1.03 | 1.4% |
| Louisiana (LA) | 1,165,219 | 0.99 | 1.4% |
| Oregon (OR) | 1,056,152 | 1.05 | 1.3% |
| Connecticut (CT) | 998,151 | 1.08 | 1.2% |
| Oklahoma (OK) | 937,881 | 0.97 | 1.2% |
| Iowa (IA) | 803,304 | 1.02 | 1.0% |
| Arkansas (AR) | 748,449 | 0.99 | 0.9% |
| Mississippi (MS) | 744,967 | 0.96 | 0.9% |
| Kansas (KS) | 730,721 | 0.99 | 0.9% |
| Nevada (NV) | 683,625 | 0.96 | 0.8% |
| Utah (UT) | 558,635 | 0.76 | 0.7% |
| New Mexico (NM) | 522,598 | 0.99 | 0.6% |
| West Virginia (WV) | 521,052 | 1.10 | 0.6% |
| Nebraska (NE) | 460,879 | 0.98 | 0.6% |
| Maine (ME) | 406,977 | 1.18 | 0.5% |
| New Hampshire (NH) | 400,563 | 1.15 | 0.5% |
| Idaho (ID) | 384,689 | 0.94 | 0.5% |
| Hawaii (HI) | 335,710 | 0.98 | 0.4% |
| Rhode Island (RI) | 294,208 | 1.06 | 0.4% |
| Montana (MT) | 280,279 | 1.09 | 0.3% |
| Delaware (DE) | 241,209 | 1.03 | 0.3% |
| South Dakota (SD) | 214,403 | 1.01 | 0.3% |
| Vermont (VT) | 190,321 | 1.17 | 0.2% |
| Alaska (AK) | 187,060 | 1.01 | 0.2% |
| North Dakota (ND) | 166,890 | 0.99 | 0.2% |
| Wyoming (WY) | 147,794 | 1.04 | 0.2% |
| District of Columbia (DC) | 144,316 | 0.93 | 0.2% |
The information from this website was thorough and well presented. It helped to understand more about the Baby Boomers, and how I can be in line to prepare for their needs as they continue to prepare themselves for their retirement, how we can help them transiion into their new life style. I am sure that the majority will still be working, myself included. I am right there with them. I whope that the younger generation will not through us into a dust bin!
Thanks again.