Desire never retires as the free love of the Swinging Sixties take Generation X to Generation Sex

They are the generation that, in the 1960s, ushered in the sexual revolution...

And it seems that, even as they head into old age, many so-called baby boomers are still clinging to the “anything goes” dream of free love.

For a new study, examining how Britain’s different age-groups live their lives, has shone a light on the amorous antics of the country’s 70-somethings.

The traditional, quiet retirement – with bowls, knitting and tea-dances – has been replaced by dating apps, threesomes and bed-hopping.

According to The Future Laboratory, a consultancy that advises Chanel, Unilever, LVMH and Ikea, we are all products of the era in which we were born.

Our world-view, our habits and our sex lives, it believes, are shaped by whether we are babyboomers, Generation X-ers, millennials, Gen Z or tweenage Alphas.

Fiona Harkin, from the firm, explained that, for the boomers, “desire never retires”.

Baby boomers, born 1946-64, grew up in a golden period of prosperity, employment and tech innovation. If Bob Dylan and The Beatles gave them a voice, while decades of rising house prices gave them a good shot at financial security.

Through their seventies, the ethos of the permissive Swinging Sixties endures. A spike in “grey divorces” seems to have created a legion of older singletons. “There is,” said Harkin, “a later-life search for new relationship avenues.”

Data seems to back it up. With one dating app called Feeld claiming the number of boomers looking for threesomes increased more than 500% last year.

For many of their children, however, life is not so carefree. The

Future Laboratory research suggests the men and women of Generation

X – born in 1965-80 – are saddled with a twin burden of middle age. Sandwiched between elderly parents and demanding children, they are – apparently – trudging through their 40s and 50s feeling increasingly undervalued.

With an older generation still wielding power – as heads of state, chief execs of businesses, owners of companies – Gen X has struggled to make its mark.

Harkin says the delay in the transfer of power, property and influence “has seriously affected Gen X’s earning power”.

On the plus side, most Gen Xers are looking forward to later-life reinvention. Instead of a mid-life crisis, Harkin predicts the arrival of “middlescence” – “an adult version of adolescence.

For the Millennials, born 1981-96, adult life is about the optimistic belief things will get better – eventually.

Despite unprecedented access to education, their hopes of an easy transition to financial stability were dashed by the crash of 2007. They were, Harkin said, “unprepared for a reality in which they faced greater financial hardship than their parents, while finding it harder to get a good job and buy a house”.

But, said Harkin, the Millennials are the most optimistic generation.

The report also describes Gen Z – born 1997-2012 – who entered adulthood in a “complex landscape of climate catastrophe, pandemic afterquakes, information overload and tech-driven loneliness”.

The youngest group – Generation Alpha, born in 2010-24 – have had their whole lives charted on social media, while the world around them has witnessed the turmoil of a Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.