Babyboomers Survey

Hey NZ Babyboomer - want to influence future planning for the babyboomer generation? You can have your say by completing the survey here: www.boomerdreams.co.nz.

As the first of New Zealand’s largest and most influential generation start turning 65, the big question taxing society is, “Will our aging baby boomers slip quietly into their golden years to become a burden on the young, or will they, rebellious to the last, reinvent the way we think of older people and the workforce?”

An ambitious new research project by Massey University MBA student Sharon Buckland plans to answer that question by asking boomers themselves. Called the “New Zealand Boomer Dreams Study 2009”, it is the most comprehensive study so far undertaken into this country’s million-plus baby boomer generation and their plans for what’s starting to be called their “unretirement”. Kiwi boomers can have their say until 10 August on www.boomerdreams.co.nz.

If New Zealand baby boomers are like boomers overseas, then current concerns about the burden we might be on pensions and social services, and the hole we leave in the workforce, may be quite misplaced.

We need to find out if that’s true, because it could have social, financial, business and economic ramifications. The survey asks New Zealand baby boomers what their plans and desires are for the future. If Kiwi boomers are similar to boomers overseas, the answers are likely to surprise social planners and both relieve and frustrate Generation X and Y workers.


American, Australian and British baby boomers are typically not eagerly anticipating lives of disengaged retirement. Instead, many plan to work, contribute to social causes and continue to influence society, as they have all their lives. Many baby boomers want to keep working, but on their own terms and with more time for leisure, travel and their families. That could revolutionise the workforce as employers begin to offer sabbaticals, part-time work, flexible hours and other incentives to retain experienced staff.


Today’s boomers are better educated, healthier, more affluent and better off than the generation before them. We are also likely to live twenty to thirty years after retirement age. Our largest and arguably most influential generation has notoriously never conformed as expected and there is no evidence to suggest that any of us now plan to behave like the generation before us and “retire gracefully to do charitable works”.

New Zealand baby boomers may want to renegotiate our life expectations, and we have the numbers to drive that change.


Ms Buckland is conducting the survey as part of her Executive MBA programme at Massey University in Auckland and says the survey’s findings will be made freely publicly available.

The New Zealand Boomer Dreams Study 2009 closely follows an American Boomer Dreams study conducted in 2006 by respected American researchers, The Futures Company (formerly Yankelovich Inc.), and is replicated with permission. This American firm originally coined the term, “Baby Boomers” in the 1960s and has been tracking the generation for more than thirty years. More information about The Futures Company is available on www.thefuturescompany.com.




For further information please contact:



Sharon Buckland

Tel: 021 742 766

E: sbuckland@xtra.co.nz