According to a 2019 Regional Studies report, millennials are more likely to live in more urban centers. Millennials are all about diversity, economic opportunities, and entertainment, all of which a large metropolitan city can provide. Baby boomers, on the other hand, flocked to homes in more suburban areas.
According to a Global Report survey taken this year, 74% of millennial employees want a job where they feel like their work matters and have a high potential for growth and promotion. Baby boomers are driven more by loyalty and are more likely to work at the same company for long periods of time. A poll in 2016 found that 40% of boomers stayed with an employer for at least 20 years.
Research has shown that more and more baby boomers are delaying retirement due to the desire to stay active. The Employee Benefit Research Institute reports that 26% of boomers have planned to retire once they hit retirement age. Many baby boomers have vowed to stay busy with jobs, travel, or special project plans.
In 2013, Aetna conducted a poll that found millennials defined health as a combination of good eating habits, physical activity, not falling ill, and being the right weight for your height. Baby boomers, on the other hand, defined health as not falling sick and being the right weight for your height. Millennials can also be credited for the rise of gluten-free, vegan, and all-natural food options.
And, no, it’s not because they’re eating avocado toast or whatever. The Federal Reserve found that millennials have lower earnings, fewer assets, and less wealth compared to baby boomers. Millennials have been forced to spend most of their money on high rent prices and paying off student loans thanks to the exorbitant cost of higher education.
The Pew Research Center has found that millennials and Gen Z are less likely to marry during their 20s. Almost 50% of baby boomers were married between the ages of 18 and 32, while only 26% of millennials are married in that same age range. This decline in the marriage rate reflects a lot of cultural and economic shifts.
The Pew Research Center has found millennials are much slower to buy a home and start a family than their previous generation counterparts. About 46% of millennials between 25 and 37 are married compared to 67% of boomers when they were the same age. Also, 48% of millennial women between ages 20 and 35 were moms in 2016, while 58% of the women of the boomer generation had become moms by that age.
In the workplace, baby boomers have been found to believe that experience is the ruling force. Baby boomers tend to think that someone with more experience and commitment to a company gives them more right to get a promotion or place in authority. Millennials, on the other hand, associate that same authority with hard work and significant contributions, regardless of age or experience.
Baby boomers had the luxury of a steady paycheck that could cover almost anything, and they’re used to working hard for one specific company for a long time. Millennials, however, expect to be fired or let go regularly, and they expect paychecks are spotty from job to job (e.g., unpaid internships, unlivable minimum wage, and the like). Millennials expect instability.
This is to be expected, but with the rise of mobile phones, social media, and new ways of communication, millennials typically prefer those to face-to-face interactions. Baby boomers almost always prefer to meet and talk in person or over the phone. Millennials, however, rely heavily on digital communications for both personal and professional conversations. Millennials do believe that urgent messages should be conveyed in person, though.
This is an obvious one, but one of the significant dividing factors in these generations. Baby boomers saw college education as their birthright, while millennials view college as a significant expense. Forbes found that college tuition is 150% more expensive for millennials than it was for baby boomers. In 2016, the average millennial graduated from college with an average of $37,172 in debt.
When Baby Boomers were young adults, they easily owned double the assets of millennials. According to a report by Young Invincibles, the average assets for millennials with a college degree (and college debt) has declined about 71% and those without a college degree and the debt that comes with it, have seen a drop of about 45%.
In 1989, baby boomers with college debt had a net wealth of about $86,500. Compared to that, 25 years later, millennial’s net wealth has dropped down to $6,600, according to a report conducted by Young Invincibles. The main cause of this drop is the historic student debt and the ever-rising cost of college tuition.
It is true that baby boomers have much more disposable income than other generations, as they’ve had the opportunity to save over the years. However, all that money that they’ve been saving is now being used to support their adult children. According to the National Endowment for Financial Education, 60% of baby boomer parents provide financial assistance to their children in one form or another.
Maybe this comes as a surprise, but a study by fundraising firm Blackbaud, 84% of Millennials make annual charitable donations and up to 70% volunteer their time and talents to worthy causes. They don’t give as much money as baby boomers, but they donate more clothes, food, and supplies. On the baby boomers end, 72% give to charity. That's not a huge margin, but 12% can make a huge difference.
A study by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology has shown that millennials between the ages of 18 and 25 (mostly younger millennials), on a 100-point scale measuring narcissism, rated themselves at 61.4. Meanwhile, baby boomers only rated themselves 26.5 narcissistic. At the same time, baby boomers rated millennials 65.3 narcissistic.
Contrary to popular belief, baby boomers are definitely online. According to Forbes, approximately 82% of boomers who use the internet have one or more social media accounts. Forbes went on to say that 10% of Facebook users are boomers while only 3% are from a younger demographic (millennials and Gen Z). LinkedIn and Facebook are the two most popular social media platforms for baby boomers, while millennials prefer Facebook and Instagram.
