Newsletter · Sep 17, 2026

At the same age, Boomers owned nearly twice as much of the country — and 2 more charts

A 100% stacked area chart of the share of United States household wealth held by each generation, quarterly from 1989 to 2026. In 1989 the Silent generation and earlier hold about 80% and shrink steadily to 11.3% by 2026. Baby Boomers rise from 19.5% to a peak of about 57% in 2016 and stand at 51.6% in 2026. Generation X grows from almost nothing to 26.1%. Millennials and later appear after 2002 and reach 11.0%. Beneath the chart, three figures compare each generation's share when its oldest members turned 45: Baby Boomers 20.9% in 1991, Generation X 9.0% in 2010, Millennials 11.0% in 2026.

Economy

At the same age, Boomers owned nearly twice as much of the country

When the oldest Baby Boomers turned 45, in 1991, their generation held 20.9% of all US household wealth. When the oldest Millennials turned 45, in 2026, theirs held 11.0%.

Chartive EditorialSep 12, 2026

Area chart of the change in United States annual electricity demand against its 2007 level, from 2000 to 2025. The area rises from −424 terawatt-hours in 2001 to the zero line by 2007, then stays within roughly 100 TWh of it for fourteen years, marked as fourteen flat years with a note that the total change from 2007 to 2021 was 19 TWh. From 2021 the line turns sharply upward in red, filling a wedge that reaches +362 TWh in 2025. Below, three bars compare the 343 TWh the United States added since 2021 with the United Kingdom's whole-year demand of 321 TWh and Italy's 312 TWh.

Climate

Fourteen years of nothing. Then this.

From 2007 to 2021 the United States added 19 terawatt-hours of annual electricity demand — half a percent in fourteen years. Since 2021 it has added 343, more than Britain uses in a year.

Chartive EditorialSep 11, 2026

Line chart of the urban share of population from 1960 to 2025 for the world and six regions, on a 0 to 100 percent axis. A thick gold world line rises from 34% to 58% and crosses a dashed line marked half of humanity in 2007, where a dot and annotation mark the crossing. Latin America rises from 49% to 82%, North America from 70% to 80%, Europe and Central Asia from 55% to 74%, and East Asia and the Pacific climbs steeply from 25% to 65%. Sub-Saharan Africa reaches 45% and South Asia 36%, both still below half.

Demographics

For all of human history most people lived off the land. That ended in 2007.

In 1960 about a third of humanity lived in towns and cities. In 2007 the share passed half for the first time, and it is now 58%. It is a threshold our species crosses only once.

Chartive EditorialSep 11, 2026

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