baby boom

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Number of births in the United States, 1934 to present

A baby boom is any one period of greatly increased birth rate during a certain period, and usually within certain geographical bounds and when the birth rate exceeds 2% of the population. People born during such a period are sometimes called baby boomers, but note the difference between a demographic boom in births and the cultural generations born during such a birth boom. Some contest the general conventional wisdom that baby booms signify good times and periods of general economic growth, and stability.^{[citation needed]}

The term "baby boom" most often refers to the dramatic post-World War II baby boom (notice the rate of change on the chart below). There are an estimated 77.3 million Americans who were born during this demographic boom in births.^[1] The term is a general demographic one and is also applicable to other similar population expansions.

Recent baby boom periods include:

• Post-World War II baby boom (1946 to 1964)

• In the 1991 book Generations, William Strauss and Neil Howe defined the birth years as 1943 to 1960.^[2]

• Echo baby boom (Millennial Generation) - (1980 to 1999), the children of the post-WWII baby boomers.
• 2007 - A statistical third surge when according to the National Center for Health Statistics, approximately 4,317,000 babies were born in the U.S. The trend during this period was due to the slight increase in childbearing women of all ages, and a record share of births to unmarried women. An increase in teen pregnancy also played into the statistics.^[3]

References

See also

• Baby Boomers
• Generation
• Generations (book)

External links

• Birth and other medical data from CDC
• Births per year from the CDC
• Number of births per year