Hey there!

Welcome to Life Noggin.

oh!

Thanks for the avocado, and all these avocados.

Why are there so many avocados!?

News reporter Blocko here.

I usually don't dress up this nicely, but I really needed to tell you about this big thing that's about to hit your world.

It's called the Silver Tsunami.

No, it's not some big tidal wave from the ocean… it has to do with a wave of people.

More specifically, older people.

Oh no!

Look out, everyone!

It's old people!

Ahhh!

Joking aside, the Silver Tsunami, also known as the Gray Tsunami, is all about the aging population, especially in the workforce.

Grandma here is what you would call a “baby boomer”.

A baby boomer is a term that people use to define a person that was born in the years closely following World War II,

which was a time where we saw a temporary increase in birth rate.

The baby boomer window varies a bit depending on who you're asking, but generally includes people born between the mid 1940's and ends around the early-to-mid 1960's.

Recent estimates put around 70-80 million baby boomers in the US alone; that's a lot of people!

And this Silver Tsunami that we're talking about has a lot to do with those baby boomers.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2017 National Population Projections,

older people are projected to outnumber children in just a couple of decades, which would be the the first time in U.S. history.

By 2030, every baby boomer will be over 65, expanding the size of the older population

so that 1 in every 5 people will be around the typical age to retire.

Similar things are happening at other places around the world, including Japan,

where a recent UN report put around a third of the population as being 60 or older.

And this rising percentage of older citizens is certainly going to affect our world.

The more senior citizens you have, the more you'll need to focus on long-term healthcare plans,

caregiving, infrastructure, or things like accessibility, and since we you have to fund those initiatives, they come with a cost.

They can't all be funded by Grandma Blocko's hand-made sweaters,

But it's super important that we address the silver tsunami because healthcare for our older pals really matters.

Rates of heart disease, dementia, and cancer all increase as we age and require unique healthcare needs.

The National Institute of Cancer has estimated that the overall number of cancer survivors in the U.S. will continue to grow substantially, mostly with people 65 or older.

So if more people are living longer, then we're going to need to address these growing issues.

So what can we do about any of this?

Well, we gotta get a little creative.

Literally!

That's the vision of EngAGE, a nonprofit that's trying to change the way people think about aging,

and it's doing that by changing the very way that our older friends live.

Rather than go the more traditional route of typical senior homes, EngAGE tries to create a more wholesome and enriching experience

by transforming affordable senior and multigenerational housing communities into vibrant centers of learning, wellness, and creativity.

Their classes and programs range everywhere from photography and creative writing, to tai chi and even dancing!

Go Grandma, it's your birthday!

It's actually your birthday.

I don't know if you remember, Grandma, but I got you a present!

In Japan, they're a bit more tech-minded and looking into using things like robots to help assist with caring for their senior citizens.

And listen, I'm sure that we all hope to be older one day, so whatever we do to help older generations now will just help others in the future, and who knows?

There might be another tsunami one day, made of millennials!

So we all really should be trying to help, even just in lending our support, because older people are also super important and productive.

And in fact, a 2016 study that looked at the relation between a worker's age and their productivity on assembly lines

suggested that a person's productivity doesn't decline as they age, at least until age 60.

See Grandma!

You're awesome.

And to all my other friends out there, no matter how old you are, you're super important to bettering this world and making it a great place to live!

Grandma, I cannot eat another oatmeal raisin cookie.

I'm not hungr- I'm not.

Okay.

I love you so much.

They're great oatmeal cookies Grandma.

Thank you.

Thank you so much to our friends over at Hollywood Health and Society for sponsoring this video!

To find out more about what they do, and see how you can help their great causes, click the link in the description.

As always, my name is Blocko, this has been Life Noggin, don't forget to keep on thinking!