Consumer Spending By Generation [CHART]

Chart: Consumer Spending By Generation

Marketers put a lot of time, attention, and valuable marketing dollars on targeting Millennials and Gen Z. There are some arguments to be made about how warranted that effort is, given that there’s a generation that has much more money to spend: Baby Boomers, according to Epsilon’s latest report on cross-generational marketing.

Figures from Epsilon’s transaction database confirm that Baby Boomers as a whole spend the most on an annual basis:

  • Baby Boomers (ages 55-75 years old) spend a total of $548.1 billion annually;
  • Gen X (ages 36-54 years old) follow Boomers with $357 billion annual spend;
  • Millennials (25-35) are next with $322.5 billion in annual spend; and
  • The Silent generation (ages 76 years and older) spend $162.9 billion annually.

One thing to note is that these figures are influenced by the selected age ranges. For example, many define Millennials as being in the 18-34 age group, or in the 21-37 range. This study uses a narrower 10-year age range, which obviously limits the amount of total spend.

The definition of Boomers uses a 20-year age range. This would result in a larger population among Boomers than Millennials, but it’s unlikely that that fully accounts for the more than 3 times greater total spend by the older than younger generation. Read the rest at Marketing Charts.