There’s no doubt about it: the pandemic has brought tremendous chaos to the U.S. economy. For some, that’s meant greater financial uncertainty, greater income insecurity, and greater mental and emotional strain.

It’s been especially trying for Americans 50 and older. Since 2021, older Americans have grown more concerned about their finances, according to a new report by NORC at the University of Chicago using Foresight 50+, the research panel it created with AARP. The findings in the report are sobering:

• A majority (82%) said they were worried financially. Half said they feel very or somewhat worried—an 11-point increase over 2021.
• Nearly half (46%) rate their personal finances as only fair or poor. Even more (52%) say they’re concerned they won’t achieve their financial goals.
• Two-thirds (67%) say they are very or somewhat worried about prices rising faster than their income. Nearly half (46%) are concerned primarily that they won’t keep up with the cost of living.
• As they prepare for retirement, 59% of respondents report having a lack of confidence in the economy and 67% of respondents who are not confident about living comfortably through their retirement years state that a main reason for their lack of confidence is their perception that Social Security is not enough on its own to make ends meet.

As this data shows, it’s more critical than ever for your business to understand the needs and experiences of this growing population. Making an impact requires learning how to support your older community of customers. Yet it might not be obvious how this cohort’s financial concerns directly affect your organization.

While older Americans are one of the most influential demographic groups in the country, the market frequently misrepresents them and their needs. The growing population of aging Americans presents a unique opportunity that may be hidden by skewed, diluted, or incomplete data, riddled with overrepresentations and gaps.

Researchers often rely on low-cost, non-probability opt-in samples for their surveys, which may exclude essential portions of the 50+ population, mostly because many older Americans are less likely to participate. With little visibility into the sources or quality of their data, researchers should have less confidence in their analyses. Unfortunately, the proliferation of such problematic sample exchanges is growing.

To truly understand the concerns of this dynamic, influential population—and deliver the policies, products, and services they need—it’s critical for organizations to acquire accurate, reliable data backed by rigorous, statistically sound methodology and convert it into powerful insights that support optimal decision making.

Top Three Survey Insights

Since the start of 2020, the pandemic has affected older Americans’ attitudes significantly. Three other studies recently conducted via Foresight 50+ offer further insight into this population’s mindset:

1. Mental health has worsened across the board.

The heightened social isolation that occurred as a result of the pandemic resulted in lower happiness in older Americans. As many as seven out of 10 have experienced more sadness or depression, and eight out of 10 reported worrying more about the future.

Socialization has gone down overall as well. More than half (56%) of the older Americans surveyed are lonelier, and 62% say they’re less willing to socialize than they were before the pandemic began.

1. Financial insecurity has increased.

Created in 1935, the Social Security program is more important today than ever. There’s overwhelming support for the program, and the pandemic only highlighted its necessity.

Yet older Americans worry about whether Social Security will adequately contribute to their income, now and in the future. While 39% of older Americans expect to rely on Social Security for a substantial amount of their retirement income, a majority (74%) worry that a single major health care expense could wipe them out financially.

1. Personal tech usage has soared.

As Americans distanced from friends and family, personal technological devices helped them keep in touch. More older Americans communicated through their personal devices than in 2021. Seventy percent of older Americans participated in a video chat in 2020, versus fewer than half in 2019.

Older Americans are also spending more on technology: an average of $1,144 per person per year, $750 more than in 2019. Tablets in particular are popular. And older Americans are using more streaming services, cutting cable TV by nearly half (60% to 38%).

The Right Research Is Crucial

The uncertain economic climate has changed the needs and wants of all of us. This includes the growing and economically powerful population of older Americans. It’s now up to businesses to keep up. However, your insights about this community can only be as good as the quality of the data behind it.

To ensure you have the fullest confidence in the insights driving your decisions as a company, your data needs to come from fully representative and high-quality panels using proven sampling methods that yield accurate results.

Using scientific rigor, pioneering recruiting methods, and the infrastructure for rapid, reliable data collection, researchers can build precise surveys that answer unique questions about the groups you need to reach within the older cohort, whether Medicare beneficiaries, frequent travelers, or grandparents.

With such properly drawn data, your organization will have trusted analyses and accurate insights that help you drive better business decisions, giving you confidence about serving an audience that’s increasingly vital to your organization—just as your organization is to them.

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Learn more about these research studies and how to use Foresight 50+ for your next project by visiting Foresight50.norc.org