Mid-20th century baby boom

United States birth rate (births per 1000 population).[1] The US Census Bureau defines baby boomers as those born between mid-1946 and mid-1964 (shown in red).[2]

The middle of the 20th century was marked by a significant and persistent increase in fertility rates in many countries of the world, especially in the Western world. The term baby boom is often used to refer to this particular boom, generally considered to have started immediately after World War II, although some demographers place it earlier or during the war.[citation needed] This terminology led to those born during this baby boom being nicknamed the baby boomer generation.

The boom coincided with a marriage boom.[3] The increase in fertility was driven primarily by a decrease in childlessness and an increase in parity progression to a second child. In most of the Western countries, progression to a third child and beyond declined, which, coupled with aforementioned increase in transition to first and second child, resulted in higher homogeneity in family sizes. The baby boom was most prominent among educated and economically active women.[4][5]

The baby boom ended with a significant decline in fertility rates in the 1960s and 1970s, later called the baby bust by demographers.[6]

  1. ^ Pre-2003 data came from: "Table 1-1. Live Births, Birth Rates, and Fertility Rates, by Race: United States, 1909–2003". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Retrieved from: "Vital Statistics of the United States, 2003, Volume I, Natality". CDC.) Post-2003 data came from: "National Vital Statistics Reports" (December 8, 2010). CDC. Volume 59, no. 1. The graph is an expanded SVG version of File:U.S.BirthRate.1909.2003.png
  2. ^ "Fueled by Aging Baby Boomers, Nation's Older Population to Nearly Double in the Next 20 Years, Census Bureau Reports". United States Census Bureau. May 6, 2014.
  3. ^ Hajnal, John (April 1953). "The Marriage Boom". Population Index. 19 (2): 80–101. doi:10.2307/2730761. JSTOR 2730761.
  4. ^ Van Bavel, Jan; Klesment, Martin; Beaujouan, Eva; Brzozowska, Zuzanna; Puur, Allan (2018). "Seeding the gender revolution: Women's education and cohort fertility among the baby boom generations". Population Studies. 72 (3): 283–304. doi:10.1080/00324728.2018.1498223. PMID 30280973. S2CID 52911705.
  5. ^ Sandström, Glenn; Marklund, Emil (2018). "A prelude to the dual provider family – The changing role of female labor force participation and occupational field on fertility outcomes during the baby boom in Sweden 1900–60". The History of the Family. 24: 149–173. doi:10.1080/1081602X.2018.1556721.
  6. ^ Greenwood, Jeremy; Seshadri, Ananth; Vandenbroucke, Guillaume (2005). "The Baby Boom and Baby Bust" (PDF). American Economic Review. 95 (1): 183–207. doi:10.1257/0002828053828680.