Baby boom

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For other uses, see Baby boom (disambiguation).

A baby boom is any period marked by a greatly increased birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds. People born during such a period are often called baby boomers; however, some experts distinguish between those born during such demographic baby booms and those who identify with the overlapping cultural generations. Conventional wisdom states that baby booms signify good times and periods of general economic growth and stability;[citation needed] however in circumstances where baby booms lead to very large number of children per family unit, such as in the case in lower income regions of the world, the outcome may be different. One common baby boom was right after WWII during the Cold War.




France experienced a baby boom after 1945; it reversed a long-term record of low birth rates.[2] The sense that the population was too small, especially in regard to more powerful Germany, was a common theme in the early twentieth century . Put in a list policies were proposed in the 1930s, and implemented in the 1940s.[3][4]



  • Decreţei: (1967-1989), A baby boom in Romania caused by a ban on abortion and contraception.

United States[edit]

The term "baby boom" most often refers to the post–World War II baby boom (1946–1964) when the number of annual births exceeded 2 per 100 women (or approximately 1% of the total population size).[citation needed] There are an estimated 78.3 million Americans who were born during this demographic boom in births.[7] The term is a general demographic and is also applicable to other similar population expansions.

United States birth rate (births per 1000 population per year).[8] The United States Census Bureau defines the demographic birth boom as between 1946 and 1964[9] (red).

Recent baby boom periods include the following:

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Rosenthal, Elisabeth (14 April 2012). "In Nigeria, a Preview of an Overcrowded Planet". The New York Times. 
  5. ^ Colin Jones, Paris: Biography of a City (2004) p 438
  9. ^ U.S. Census Bureau — Oldest Boomers Turn 60 (2006)

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]