Middle Age By The Numbers

Slightly over 4m Americans should turn forty this year. If you're one of them, you're not alone in having to face up to the annoying fact that you're no longer "young." In the U.S., there were 37.5 million women and 36.1m men age 40 - 59 at the 2000 Census.

What do over seventy million middle aged people do?

Go Bald: Male pattern baldness -- the most common type of hair loss -- affects 33m men in the U.S (out of almost 100m men over 18). Other sources indicate, without attribution, that up to 60% of men will have some hair loss by age 50. A 1999 article reported that male pattern baldness treatment market is $900 million per year. A 1994 Psychology Today survey found that 40% of women found bald men unattractive -- although the women who felt that way were generally young and attractive, and, frankly, picky about a lot of things. The good news: the same survey found that only 18% of women whose partners had suffered some hair loss found it upsetting.

Buy A Corvette: Chevrolet sold 36,000 Corvettes in 2006 (source: GM). J. D. Power and Associates reports that 47% are sold to people age 36-55 and an astounding 40% are sold to customers age 56 and up. Not surprisingly, 84% of Corvette buyers are men (source: J. D. Power).

Get Divorced: in 2000, 16.3% of women age 35-59 were divorced, as were 13.2% of men. An additional 3.4% of women and 2.5% of men were separated (source: U.S. Census). For both sexes, that is the highest percent of the middle aged population currently divorced in the last fifty years (for people under 35, the percentage divorced has been declining since 1980). The middle aged are also more likely to be divorced than younger (25-34 year olds) or older (60+) people.

Go Through Menopause: The average age at which women begin menopause is 51; most women will reach it between 48 and 54.

Have Plastic Surgery: In 2006, U.S. patients aged 40-54 received 2.2m Botox injections, about 560k injections of various wrinkle fillers, 455k chemical peels, and 328k microdermabrasion treatments. They also underwent 126k liposuctions and had 99k eyelid procedures. 90k women age 40-54 are walking around with enhanced breasts; 65k men and women have differently shaped noses, and 62k have smaller midsections due to tummy tuck operations. Botox, especially, is a middle-aged treatment: it was given 82k times to people in their twenties, 748k times to people in their thirties, 2.2m times to people 40-54, and 991k times to people 55 and over. On the bright side, there were only 228 middle aged buttock implants, 71 calf augmentations, and 74 pectoral implants.

Retire Early: The median age at which people exit the labor force is 62 for men and 61.4 for women (source pdf). Those numbers have crept downward over a fifty year period -- in the early 1950s, men retired at 66.9 and women at 67.6. However, there's some debate whether age discrimination essentially forces many 60+ workers out of the work force.

Stop Being A Slave To Fashion: 6.2 million households bought something from online and catalog clothing retailer Lands End (2002 data), whose typical customer is 35-55. In 2002, before Lands End was purchased by Sears, they sold $1.5 billion of khakis, button-downs, and relaxed fit jeans -- the number is reported to be far higher now.

Listen To Oldies Radio: 732 U.S. radio stations broadcast oldies -- that's more than blast top 40 (667 stations). And "oldies" doesn't mean Elvis any more -- now the format is defined as "popular music, usually rock," according to consulting firm News Generation. And oldies isn't the only radio format targeting middle-aged adults. Out of 13,500 U.S. stations, almost 1,200 have adult contemporary, soft adult contemporary, or soft urban contemporary formats. Over 1,000 are album rock, classic rock, or '70's classic hits stations.

Experience A Time Warp At A Concert: Going to a live concert shouldn't make you feel old, because the biggest acts are ones you probably saw twenty or more years ago. 2006's top tour? The Rolling Stones, followed by Madonna, Bon Jovi, and U2. While more recent acts such as Tim McGraw and Faith Hill were in the top 10, so were Barbra Streisand, the Dave Matthews Band, and Aerosmith. Only the ticket prices have changed ... a lot ...

Hide the Grey: Over $1 billion dollars of hair coloring products are sold in the U.S. each year, and billions more are spent for salon coloring. Anywhere from one in three to one in two women color their hair (unfortunately, data by age doesn't appear to be publicly available). 6% of men age 45-54 use hair color products to get rid of the grey.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to find the answers to intriguing, more complicated questions, such as "how many middle-aged men buy a Corvette and date an age-inappropriate blonde" or "how many women dump their bum of a husband once the kids are off to college, and go back to school." We'll work on those.