Demographics: Millennials Outnumber Baby Boomers

Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation, according to population estimates released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau. Millennials, defined as those ages 18-34 in 2015, now number 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 51-69). And Generation X (ages 35-50 in 2015) is projected to pass the Boomers in population by 2028.

The Millennial generation continues to grow as young immigrants expand its ranks. Boomers – whose generation was defined by the boom in U.S. births following World War II – are older and their numbers shrinking as the number of deaths among them exceeds the number of older immigrants arriving in the country.

Pew Research Center has established that the oldest “Millennial” was born in 1981. The Center continues to assess demographic, attitudinal and other evidence on habits and culture that will help to establish when the youngest Millennial was born or even when a new generation begins. The youngest Millennial was born in 1997.

According to Nielsen, Millennials are radio’s largest generation in terms of cume. According to the recent “State of the Media: Audio Today” study, 66.5 million listeners among the 18-34 age group use radio each week (52% male, 48% female), which represents more listeners than any other age group.

Radio programmers face a unique challenge: With the growth of Millennials in the population, mirroring the way they’ll continue to evolve seems an important method for retaining—and growing—audience share. Jeff Sanders, CEO of consultancy Station Domination, tells InsideRadio the last thing radio can do is be inactive when they must be proactive.

With Generation Y (Millennials) and now Generation Z (next in line) “growing up in the rise of the information age, the Internet and the dotcoms, programmers must strive to educate themselves and target the hotspots for this audience,” Sanders says. “Being stagnant or complacent will open the door for our competition to move to the foreground.”

He adds that all demos are being impacted by a fast-evolving world. “Think about it. Uber hurt taxi service, AirBnbs are impacting hotels, Skype has cost phone companies millions, Netflix put Blockbuster out of business and digital cameras closed Kodak’s doors. Radio must pay attention to the way [late-night is] shaking things up on TV and completely changing the rules for entertainment….otherwise we’ll find ourselves being hurt by those listeners who have found ‘Digital Disruption.’”