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Baby Boomers Born 1946–1964

How old are Baby Boomers?

Baby Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964, which means they are currently aged between 61 and 80.

Ages current as of August 8, 2026 · The only generation with an official US Census Bureau definition.

Baby Boomers were born into postwar optimism and rationed television, then proceeded to reinvent every institution they passed through — and to soundtrack it. They watched the moon landing live, fought over and against the Vietnam War, and are now the generation whose oldest members are turning 80.

Quick facts

Birth years
1946–1964
Ages in 2026
61 to 80 years old
Generation before
The Silent Generation (1928–1945)
Generation after
Generation X (1965–1980)
US population
≈64 million About 19% of the US population (2024 estimates); Boomers were the largest generation in American history until Millennials passed them.
Where the name comes from
Named for a literal boom: births in the US surged after World War II, from 2.8 million in 1945 to 3.4 million in 1946, and stayed high for 18 years — about 76 million babies in all. The press called it the 'baby boom,' and the babies became Boomers.
Also known as
Boomers · the Me Generation

Famous members of Baby Boomers

Every one of them born between 1946 and 1964.

  • Oprah Winfrey

    b. 1954

    Film & TV

    Turned a Baltimore talk show into a media empire

  • Steve Jobs

    b. 1955

    Tech

    Co-founded Apple in his parents' garage in 1976

  • Bill Gates

    b. 1955

    Tech

    Dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft

  • Michael Jordan

    b. 1963

    Sport

    Six NBA titles; the last Boomer-born sports icon

  • Madonna

    b. 1958

    Music

    Four decades of reinvention, from 'Holiday' onward

  • Michael Jackson

    b. 1958

    Music

    Thriller is still the best-selling album ever made

  • Barack Obama

    b. 1961

    Politics

    44th US president, born in the boom's final years

  • Meryl Streep

    b. 1949

    Film & TV

    A record 21 Academy Award acting nominations

  • Tom Hanks

    b. 1956

    Film & TV

    America's dad, from Splash to Apollo 13

The culture that raised them

Movies

  • The Graduate1967Alienated youth, one word: plastics
  • Easy Rider1969The counterculture hits the highway
  • Jaws1975The first modern summer blockbuster
  • Star Wars1977Boomer-made myth that raised every generation since

TV

  • Leave It to Beaver1957The suburban childhood, idealized in black and white
  • The Ed Sullivan Show1948Where 73 million of them watched the Beatles land in 1964
  • Saturday Night Live1975Boomer humor goes live from New York

Music

  • The Beatles on Ed Sullivan196473 million viewers — about 40% of the country — in one night
  • Motown Records1959Detroit's hit factory scored the generation's youth
  • Woodstock1969Three days, 400,000 people, one muddy defining myth

Books

  • The Catcher in the Rye1951Holden Caulfield, patron saint of teenage disaffection
  • On the Road1957The Beat blueprint for dropping out and heading west
  • To Kill a Mockingbird1960Assigned to every Boomer, and everyone since

You probably didn't know

The non-obvious markers — the stuff only Baby Boomers remembers.

  • They practiced hiding from the atom bomb

    'Duck and cover' drills — taught by Bert the Turtle in a 1951 civil-defense film — were a routine part of Boomer elementary school.

  • Their draft numbers were drawn on live TV

    On December 1, 1969, the first draft lottery since WWII assigned call-up order by birthday, broadcast to the nation. A blue capsule could reroute your life.

  • Music got personal in 1954

    The Regency TR-1, the first mass-market transistor radio, let teenagers take rock 'n' roll out of the family living room — the distant ancestor of the earbud.

  • The hula hoop moved 25 million units in four months

    Wham-O's 1958 craze is still shorthand for how fast a fad could sweep 1950s suburbia.

  • Coonskin caps were the fidget spinners of 1955

    Disney's Davy Crockett series set off a merchandising frenzy — at the peak, caps reportedly sold by the thousands per day.

  • There were 76 million of them

    Between 1946 and 1964, US hospitals delivered roughly 76 million future Boomers — a demographic wave that reshaped schools, suburbs, and eventually Social Security.

The events that shaped Baby Boomers

  1. Sputnik

    The Soviet satellite set off the space race and rewired American math and science education around beating Moscow.

  2. Cuban Missile Crisis

    Thirteen October days when the Cold War nearly turned hot — Boomer kids practiced drills while their parents watched the news.

  3. JFK assassinated

    November 22, 1963: the 'where were you' moment of the Boomer childhood.

  4. Civil Rights Act

    Landmark legislation outlawing segregation and discrimination, passed as the oldest Boomers entered high school.

  5. Moon landing

    July 20, 1969: Apollo 11 put Armstrong and Aldrin on the Moon before a global audience of hundreds of millions.

  6. Kent State

    National Guardsmen killed four students at an anti-war protest, a breaking point in the generation's relationship with authority.

  7. Vietnam withdrawal

    US combat involvement ended after a war that drafted, divided, and defined Boomer men — 2.7 million of whom served.

  8. Nixon resigns

    Watergate ended a presidency and hard-coded a generation's skepticism of institutions.

What things cost when Baby Boomers turned 25

The median Boomer was born in 1955 and turned 25 in 1980 — straight into stagflation, with inflation over 13% and mortgage rates in the double digits. The sticker prices below look quaint; the interest rates were not.

Median home price

▲57% in real terms since 1980

1980 annual average
$64,750
In today's dollars
$262,394
Q2 2026
$410,700

Median sales price of houses sold in the US (Census/HUD via FRED).

Median household income

▲17% in real terms since 1980

1980
$17,710
In today's dollars
$71,768
2024 (latest available)
$83,730

US median household income (Census Bureau).

A dozen eggs

▼37% in real terms since 1980

1980 annual average
$0.84
In today's dollars
$3.40
June 2026
$2.14

Grade A large eggs, US city average (BLS average price data).

A gallon of gas

▼17% in real terms since 1980

1980 annual average
$1.25
In today's dollars
$5.07
June 2026
$4.20

Unleaded regular, US city average (BLS average price data).

A year of college tuition

▲199% in real terms since 1980

1980–81 school year
$804
In today's dollars
$3,258
2022–23 (latest NCES year)
$9,750

Average tuition and required fees, public four-year institutions (NCES); both figures from the same NCES series.

Inflation adjustment uses BLS CPI-U annual averages (latest published month: 2026-06). Sources for every figure are listed in the sources section below.

Frequently asked questions

What years are Baby Boomers?

Baby Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964 — the one generational range that is officially defined, because the US Census Bureau tracks the postwar birth surge itself.

How old are Baby Boomers in 2026?

In 2026, Baby Boomers are between 61 and 80 years old. The oldest, born in 1946, began turning 80 in 2026.

Why are they called Baby Boomers?

Because of the boom in babies: US births jumped from 2.8 million in 1945 to 3.4 million in 1946 and stayed elevated through 1964, producing about 76 million children.

Is 1964 a Boomer year or Gen X?

1964 is the last Baby Boomer birth year under the Census definition; Generation X begins in 1965. Cusp kids born in the early '60s often identify with Gen X culture anyway.

What generation comes after Baby Boomers?

Generation X, born 1965–1980. Before the Boomers came the Silent Generation, born 1928–1945.

Are Boomers still the biggest generation?

Not anymore. Millennials passed them years ago — Boomers now number about 64 million (19% of the US population) to Millennials' roughly 74 million.

When do the youngest Boomers retire?

The youngest Boomers, born in 1964, turn 62 in 2026 and reach Social Security's full retirement age of 67 in 2031.

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Sources

Every fact on this page is verified against the sources below; each entry in the underlying data file carries per-fact source references.

  1. The Baby Boom Cohort in the United States: 2012 to 2060 (P25-1141) — US Census Bureau
  2. Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins — Pew Research Center
  3. The oldest Baby Boomers turn 80 in 2026 — Pew Research Center
  4. How Every Generation of the Last Century Got Its Nickname — TIME
  5. US population by generation — Statista
  6. Baby boomers — Wikipedia
  7. Strauss-Howe Generational Theory — CDAMM
  8. Oprah Winfrey — Wikipedia
  9. Oprah Winfrey — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  10. Steve Jobs — Wikipedia
  11. Steve Jobs — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  12. Bill Gates — Wikipedia
  13. Bill Gates — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  14. Michael Jordan — Wikipedia
  15. Michael Jordan — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  16. Madonna — Wikipedia
  17. Madonna — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  18. Michael Jackson — Wikipedia
  19. Michael Jackson — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  20. Barack Obama — Wikipedia
  21. Barack Obama — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  22. Meryl Streep — Wikipedia
  23. Meryl Streep — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  24. Tom Hanks — Wikipedia
  25. Tom Hanks — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  26. The Graduate — Wikipedia
  27. The Graduate — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  28. Easy Rider — Wikipedia
  29. Easy Rider — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  30. Jaws (film) — Wikipedia
  31. Jaws — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  32. Star Wars (film) — Wikipedia
  33. Star Wars — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  34. Leave It to Beaver — Wikipedia
  35. Leave It to Beaver — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  36. The Ed Sullivan Show — Wikipedia
  37. Saturday Night Live — Wikipedia
  38. Saturday Night Live — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  39. The Beatles — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  40. Motown — Wikipedia
  41. Motown — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  42. Woodstock — Wikipedia
  43. Woodstock — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  44. The Catcher in the Rye — Wikipedia
  45. The Catcher in the Rye — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  46. On the Road — Wikipedia
  47. Jack Kerouac — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  48. To Kill a Mockingbird — Wikipedia
  49. To Kill a Mockingbird — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  50. Duck and cover — Wikipedia
  51. Draft lottery (1969) — Wikipedia
  52. Selective Service System — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  53. Regency TR-1 — Wikipedia
  54. Regency TR-1 transistor radio — Smithsonian / National Museum of American History
  55. Hula hoop — Wikipedia
  56. Hula hoop — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  57. Davy Crockett (miniseries) — Wikipedia
  58. Davy Crockett — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  59. Sputnik — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  60. Sputnik 1 — Wikipedia
  61. Cuban missile crisis — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  62. Cuban Missile Crisis — Wikipedia
  63. Assassination of John F. Kennedy — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  64. Assassination of John F. Kennedy — Wikipedia
  65. Civil Rights Act of 1964 — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  66. Civil Rights Act of 1964 — Wikipedia
  67. Apollo 11 — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  68. Apollo 11 — Wikipedia
  69. Kent State shootings — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  70. Kent State shootings — Wikipedia
  71. Vietnam War — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  72. Vietnam War — Wikipedia
  73. Watergate scandal — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  74. Watergate scandal — Wikipedia
  75. Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States (MSPUS) — Census/HUD via FRED, St. Louis Fed
  76. Money Income of Households, Families, and Persons in the United States: 1980 (P60-132) — US Census Bureau
  77. Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2024 — US Census Bureau
  78. Average Price: Eggs, Grade A, Large (APU0000708111) — BLS via FRED, St. Louis Fed
  79. Average Price: Gasoline, Unleaded Regular (APU000074714) — BLS via FRED, St. Louis Fed
  80. Average undergraduate tuition and fees (Table 330.10) — National Center for Education Statistics