America is about to experience an “elder boom,” a direct result of the baby boom of 1946 to 1964. We have more senior citizens in America today than we’ve had at any time in our history. Every eight seconds an American turns sixty-five; that’s more than 10,000 people per day, almost 4 million per year. A century ago, just about 3 percent of the population was sixty-five or older.

Today more than 13 percent of Americans are over sixty-five, and by 2030, the number will be 20 percent. The 5 million Americans older than eighty-five, our country’s fastest-growing demographic, will number 11.5 million by 2035. Because of advances in healthcare and technology, people are living longer than ever, often into their nineties or breaking one hundred.

Let’s remember: people getting older is not a crisis; it’s a blessing. We’re living longer; the question is how we should live. As a country, we have to figure out how to embrace this demographic shift with grace. Just as the baby boom brought with it incredible power and opportunity, so does the coming elder boom.