If you’re like me, you probably find yourself reading articles about trends in retirement now and then. And one common theme in those articles is that retirement communities need to prepare for the arrival of the Baby Boom generation, who are now approaching 80. What will attract Boomers? What will they require? How different are their tastes and needs from those of the current generation of retirees?

I had been contemplating these questions when it occurred to me: I’m a Boomer myself, and there are lots of us at Kendal. We already know what we require and what attracted us to Kendal. But wait, I thought, how many of us Boomers are there, really? I decided to check it out.

As longtime readers know, I like to dig into the Pennsylvania voter files from time to time, and this time I decided to look at voters’ current ages at Kendal and Crosslands. Not every resident is registered to vote, but the vast majority are—I would estimate at least 95%—so the voter data is a reasonable proxy for the resident population as a whole.  

I used the standard definition for Boomers: anyone born between 1946 and 1964.

It turns out that over 20% of us are Boomers. At Kendal, there are 83 Boomers out of 405 registered voters (20.5%); and at Crosslands, there are 90 Boomers out of 396 registered voters (22.7%).

Those percentages have more than doubled since my last download of the voter data, in 2021. (You can see my take on various aspects of that 2021 data here, here, and here.)

Here is a table showing the 2021 and 2025 numbers of Boomers. As you can see, the combined percentage of Boomers across both campuses has grown from 8.8% to 21.6% over that period.

2021KendalXlandsTotal
Boomers392968
Total residents396373769
Percent9.8%7.8%8.8%
2025KendalXlandsTotal
Boomers8390173
Total residents405396801
Percent20.5%22.7%21.6%

Boomers as a percentage of Kendal and Crosslands registered voters, 2021 and 2025. Data source: PA Department of State.

I imagine that the Crosslands residents who recently moved into the new Woolman apartments and Mott cottages have included many Boomers. That probably helps to account for the dramatic jump in the Crosslands Boomer percentage between 2021 and 2025.

Similarly, those about to move into the independent living apartments in the new Kendal wing will probably add a lot of new Boomers on the Kendal campus.

Boomers are already making their presence felt at Kendal. Much of the push for healthier food, for EV chargers and solar panels, for pollinator-friendly grounds, and for pickleball courts has come from Boomer residents. So if you want to know what Boomers will want when they arrive, ask us. Many of us are already here.