Report: Retirees Are Healthier, Wealthier — and Watch More TV

Retirees today are living longer, healthier and wealthier lives than previous generations — but they also are watching substantially more television, according to new research from a money management company.

Using data from the the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Reserve Board and other sources, money management firm United Income compiled a portrait of modern retirees. It offers mostly positive developments — some perhaps surprising — but also has some words of caution.

“Collectively, retirees have never had it better, with more health, wealth, and time to enjoy life without the constraints of work,” the report declared. It said retirees are looking more at quality of life instead of “just basic sustenance concerns,” and that they were “poised as a group to reimagine retirement with fewer constraints.”

Among the study’s findings:

• In addition to living longer, 62 percent of today’s retirees have no “physical or cognitive limitations.” That is an increase of more than 25 percent since 1963, when recording of that data first began.
• Financial insecurity among retirees “has broadly declined.” That may be counterintuitive to modern concerns about retirement income,  but the report notes the percentage of retirees living on the current minimum wage or less “dropped in half over the past 30 years,” making up only about 12.5 percent of all retirees. “Similarly, the share of retirees living below the poverty line decreased by more than 10 percent during that same time period,” the report states.
• Retirees have increased their physical activity over past generations — but they watch a lot more TV. Viewing per day went up by more than 1.5 hours between 1975 and 2012, the report states. “To put this in perspective, for every 10 minutes of time added onto the life of a retiring 60-year-old, the share of time spent awake and in front of a TV every day increased by about one minute, compared to about a 20-second increase in the amount of time spent on exercise, outdoor activities, or sports,” it said.