• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 22, 2006

A recent release by The Media Audit shows that the number of men and women age 50 and over has increased from 44.6 million to 51.1 million in the past five years. Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, says "The figures are even more impressive when you consider that almost half of the total of 51.1 million men and women 50 and older are retired."

The actual number of retirees in this group is 23.4 million and they have an average annual household income of a little more than $42,000. Almost half of the retirees have liquid assets of $250,000 or more. Collectively the liquid assets have a total value of at least $250 billion.

Additional significant demographic data about the boomers at 50 include these stats:

Since 2000:

• The percentage of the group with at least one college degree has increased from 32.5 percent or 14.6 million to 36.3 percent or 19.3 million
• The percentage that earns $50,000 or more has increased from 32.7 percent to 37.7 percent
• Those with annual incomes of $75,000 or more increased from17.8 percent to 22.1 percent
• Those with household incomes of $100,000 or more increased from 9.5 to 12.8.

 Within the age 50 + segment of the population:

• 82.3 percent own their home compared to 69.2 in the general population
• 4.3 percent plan to buy a home during the next two years, compared to 7.0 percent of all adults 
• 3.0 percent expect to pay $30,000 or more for their next automobile
• They drink less beer and more wine than do all adults. Approximately
• 15.8 percent said they drank wine on 3 days during the previous two weeks, and drink less beer
• 29.0 percent visited a gambling casino during the past year compared to 26.8 percent of all adults

 "The numbers make it pretty clear that the baby boomers don't stop spending money when they turn age 50," says Jordan. "A lot of their 'plan to buy' numbers are very comparable to those of the general adult population."

For more information from the MediaAudit, please go here.