Silver Generation
The over-60s are the biggest consumer story of the decade.
Projected to grow from USD 19T to USD 34T by 2036, the Silver Generation is the biggest structural growth story in global consumer spending.
19T USD
2024 Silver spending
34T USD
2036 projection
1.2B+
Over-60s globally
6.7T USD
Annual US 60+ spend
The trajectory
USD 19T today. USD 34T by 2036.
An extra USD 15T of annual spending arrives over twelve years, and almost none of it behaves like the spending brands are currently built around.
Scale of the shift
1.2 billion people, growing 3x faster than the rest of the population.
Global life expectancy has climbed by 25 years since 1960 and fertility has halved. The population aged 60+ now stands at 1.2 billion, growing three times faster than the population as a whole. This group already controls USD 19T in annual spending, on track to reach USD 34T by 2036. The dedicated Silver Economy - products and services built specifically for older consumers - is worth USD 4.5T today and growing at 7% a year, more than double the pace of consumer spending generally.
Regional dynamics
Asia-Pacific is closing fast on North America.
North America leads today and will keep leading through 2036, but Asia-Pacific is more than doubling from USD 4.9T to USD 10.2T in older-adult spending and overtaking Europe along the way. At a city level, the concentration is already extreme: Cape Coral, Florida is on track to become the first major US city where over half of all spending comes from people over 60.
United States case study
86 million adults, USD 6.7T a year - the world's third-largest consumer economy.
America's 86 million adults aged 60+ spend USD 6.7T a year - more than the entire economies of India, Germany or the UK. As a standalone market, they would rank as the world's third-largest consumer economy. Turning 60 changes what people buy: spending on social protection, medical products and insurance rises sharply, while spending on restaurants, clothing and vehicles falls. Florida, Texas and Arizona are set to see the fastest growth in older-adult spending over the next decade.
Change in category spend after age 60
Illustrative shape of US category shift, indexed
Consumer psychology
Older consumers see ageing more positively than most marketing assumes.
81% of Americans hope to age better than their parents did, and 51% of people 60+ say they feel younger than their actual age - a gap that has widened over the past decade. They are more value-conscious than younger shoppers, more likely to use coupons and shop sales, without being any less willing to pay for products that prove their worth.
Health, wellness and nutrition
Health is the single fastest-growing spending category for this group.
Purchasing data shows older consumers buy broadly across supplements but spend the most on products tied to specific conditions - heart health, digestion, joint support - rather than generic wellness claims. The same pattern holds in food and beverage, where products addressing named conditions consistently command a bigger share of spend. The US osteoporosis market alone is projected to reach USD 48B by 2030.
One category, one stat
USD 48B
projected US osteoporosis market by 2030
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Download our Silver Generation report
The full report on the USD 19T to USD 34T shift - regional dynamics, US case study, consumer psychology, and the health and nutrition categories reshaping around older consumers.
- Global spending by 60+ consumers, 2024 vs 2036
- Regional and city-level Silver Economy hotspots
- US category shifts at age 60
- Health, wellness and nutrition deep-dive
Size the Silver opportunity
Get city-level Silver Generation projections across 190+ countries.