Warning: declare(encoding=...) ignored because Zend multibyte feature is turned off by settings in /home/webadmin/sites/iftf.org/public_html/typo3_src-4.6.18/typo3/sysext/fluid/Classes/Core/Widget/AbstractWidgetViewHelper.php on line 2 IFTF: Boomers: The Next 20 Years

Institute For The Future

  • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • IFTF Vantage Partnership
    • IFTF Foresight Essentials
    • Forecasts
    • Workshops
    • Maps
    • Artifacts from the Future
    • Events
    • In the News
    • Media Center
    • Gallery
    • History of the Future
  • Our Work
    • Featured Projects
    • Global Landscape
    • People + Technology
    • Health + Self
  • Partner with IFTF
    • IFTF Vantage
    • IFTF Foresight Essentials
    • Research Labs
    • Partners
    • Jobs
    • Donate
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Future Now
  • Donate
Medium Facebook Twitter RSS
  • Global Landscape
  • People + Technology
  • Health + Self

Boomers: The Next 20 Years

  • Featured Projects
  • Global Landscape

    • Ten-Year Forecast

    • Food Futures

    • Work + Learn Futures

    • Workable Futures

    • Cities Futures

    • Governance Futures

    • Inclusive Futures

    • Socialstructing

    • Sustainability

  • People + Technology

    • Smithsonian Futures Beacons

    • Tech Futures

    • Work + Learn Futures

    • Workable Futures

    • Games

  • Health + Self

    • After the Pandemic

    • Centering Health

    • Health Futures

    • Health Care

    • Health Games

    • Aging

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT IFTF?

Contact us today »

Future NOW Blog

Identify Your Assets and Gaps: A Foresight Tool for Action

Oct 14, 2022

IFTF News from the Future #80

Oct 06, 2022

IFTF Equitable Enterprise Newsletter | September

Sep 28, 2022

Sparking a Sense of Hope & Agency

Sep 19, 2022

IFTF News from the Future #79

Sep 08, 2022

Browse all blog posts »

Looking 20 Years Ahead

(click image to enlarge)

As boomers move into their 60s and 70s over the next 20 years, they will not only carry their revolutionary history with them. They will extend it into a new realm. Biology, the very basis of human life, will be up for grabs as boomers make choices about physical aging that no previous generation has had to make.

They will weigh these choices in a world fraught with dilemmas: a rapidly deteriorating environment, shifts in global economic power, the decline of legacy institutions that they have both opposed and worked within, the meteoric advance of technologies that confer advantage on the youngest members of society, and perhaps even the loss of faith in science as the basis for a rational society. They may face growing opposition to entitlements by younger workers who feel burdened by the seemingly privileged lifestyles of boomers. They will stand divided by the great gap in wealth within their own ranks.

The Boomers map is a first view of this new era of boomer experience. It would be a mistake to call this a map of aging or even a map of boomers as they age. After all, every aspect of aging is in flux. Rather, this is a map of the changing human lifecycle as it will be lived first by nearly 77 million people who just happened to be born in those seemingly quiet years following World War II. It’s a map of the boomers’ next 20 years, yes—but it’s also a preview of life to come for us all.

Boomers In the News

  • How Boomers Will Confront, Impact & Adapt to the Next 20 Years, Forbes.com 
  • Celebrating 50 Years the Same Way They Started, Orange County Register
  • To 2028: The Boomer Odyssey, Planadviser.com
  • Global Economy Impacts Outlook for Baby Boomers, BoomerCafe
  • How Boomers Will Confront, Impact & Adapt to the Next 20 Years, Business Wire
  • Also in Plansponsor.com, Retirement Weekly, The MatureMarket.com

Map [SR-1053]

  • boomers_reader_spreads.pdf

    Boomers: The Next 20 Years Map

Forecasts [SR-1173]

  • Ecologies of Risk
  • The Changing Face of Civil Society
  • Distinctive Frontiers of Technology
  • Sustainable Future Proofing

Action Types: Modes of Decision-Making [SR-1138]

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Intro_rs.pdf

    Introduction: Anticipating Boomers' Futures Through Action Types

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Enviro_rs.pdf

    Crafting an Environment

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Aging_rs.pdf

    Aging Sustainably

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Family_rs.pdf

    Forging Family

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Service_rs.pdf

    Serving Faithfully

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Self_rs.pdf

    Reinventing the Self

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Rebuild_rs.pdf

    Rebuilding a Life

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Powering_rs.pdf

    Powering Through

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Lost_rs.pdf

    Lost in Transition

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Questing_rs.pdf

    Still Questing

  • SR-1138_Boomers_Home_rs.pdf

    Coming Home

Publishing Date

2007

  • Institute for the Future

  • 201 Hamilton Avenue
  • Palo Alto, CA 94301
  • 650.854.6322
  • [email protected]

  • © 2025 Institute for the Future

    What We Do

  • Who We Are
  • IFTF Vantage Partnership
  • IFTF Foresight Essentials
  • Forecasts
  • Workshops
  • Maps
  • Artifacts from the Future
  • Events
  • In the News
  • Media Center
  • Gallery
  • History of the Future

    Our Work

  • Featured Projects
  • Global Landscape
  • People + Technology
  • Health + Self

    Partner with IFTF

  • IFTF Vantage
  • IFTF Foresight Essentials
  • Research Labs
  • Partners
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

    Future Now

    Donate