Post-World War II baby boom

The end of World War II brought a baby boom to many countries, especially Western ones. There is some disagreement as to the precise beginning and ending dates of the post-war baby boom, but it is most often agreed to have begun in the years immediately after the war, though some place it earlier at the increase of births in 1940-1943. The boom started to decline as birth rates in the United States started to decline in 1958, though the Boom would only grind to a halt 2 years later in 1960, 20 years after it begun.

In countries that had suffered heavy war damage, displacement of people and post-war economic hardship, such as Germany and neighboring Poland, the boom began some years later.

In May 1951, Sylvia Porter, a columnist for the New York Post, used the term "boom" to refer to the phenomenon of increased births in post-war America.

Most Baby boomers are now in their 60s or 70s, with the oldest member of the boom being around 74. The trailing boomers are in their late 50s, with the youngest being 58. In the economy, many are now retiring and leaving the labor force.

In 1946, live births in the U.S. surged from 222,721 in January to 339,499 in October. By the end of the 1940s, about 32 million babies had been born, compared with 24 million in the 1930s. In 1954, annual births first topped four million and did not drop below that figure until 1965, when four out of ten Americans were under the age of 20.

In the years after the war, couples who could not afford families during the Great Depression made up for lost time; the mood was now optimistic. During the war, unemployment ended and the economy greatly expanded; afterwards the country experienced vigorous economic growth until the 1970s. The G.I. Bill enabled record numbers of people to finish high school and attend college. This led to an increase in stock of skills and yielded higher incomes to families.

It is important to distinguish between the demographic boom in births, and the actual generations born during that period.

As can be seen by the birth rate chart, the "birth boom" of the post–World War II period is, in a way, as much or more defined by the birth dearths that preceded and followed it, than by any exceptionally high fertility rate. Comparing birth rates from 1946 to 1964 with the rates, say, prior to World War I, the post–World War II rates are much lower, though they are high in comparison to the time periods immediately preceding and following 1946 - 1964.

...
Wikipedia