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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

A shrinking young adult market

The chart below shows the number of Americans by age in 2016. There are differing definitions for the ages of Millennials. We used the U.S. Census Bureau's definition in the chart - age 16 to 35 in 2016. This year it would be ages 17 to 36.

However, what age Millennials are is not the main reason for showing you the above chart. What is significant is that in 2016 twenty-five-year-olds where the largest in number of any age of Americans. And it illustrates that for each year after 2016, that tallest bar will shift to the right and the less tall bars to its left will shift to the right as well. What is means is that in a few years, the number of young adults in the 21 to 29 age range, a prime target market for many community leisure venues (CLVs), will decrease in number. So just like the number of children is on the decrease, so is the number of young adults.

This trend is something many CLV operators seriously need to start thinking about and planning for. With the shrinking of their younger adult market, how will they evolve to attract the aging Millennials?

Counter to this trend is another trend - there will be a wave of adults in the 30 to 39 age range, the prime age for marriage, the birth of the first child and home buying. So we will see an increase in both the young family market (although birth projections do not forecast an increase in births) as well as older single adults.

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