baby boom

(redirected from baby-boom)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus.

baby boom

baby boom, a period in which the birthrate is significantly higher than in other periods, especially the post–World War II period in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In the United States, the postwar baby boom was the largest demographic spike in the nation's history; more than 78 million Americans were born. Experts differ about the span of the U.S. baby boom, which the Census Bureau defines as 1946 to 1964; the number of births peaked in 1957. Some break the period into two sections: “Leading-edge Boomers” (1946–54) and “Generation Jones” (1955–65). Marriage and pregnancy were delayed during the 16 years that spanned the Great Depression and World War II. After the war, births went up precipitously as the average ages at which people got married and began having children both went down. The baby-boom years were also marked by an expanding economy, increased educational opportunities, and population shifts to the growing suburbs. The baby boom ended in the late 1960s and by the 1970s America's birthrate had declined to 1930s levels.

Baby boomers are the largest generation in U.S. history, and have had a profound effect on many of the country's political, economic, and cultural trends. Many boomers reached young adulthood during the 1960s and contributed to and were affected by the period's antiauthoritarian and alternative hallmarks, such as political and social activism and rock music. Boomers also are united by such factors as television (they were the first generation to grow up with the medium) and consumerism (they have tended to be voracious commercial consumers). Many baby boomers have struggled to achieve the standard of living enjoyed by their parents because the large size of their cohort has tended to diminish economic opportunity, but the generation as a whole is the richest in American history. In the 21st cent. aging baby boomers are expected to present a significant challenge to the U.S. healthcare industry, Medicare, and social security.

Bibliography

See P. C. Light, Baby Boomers (1990), N. A. Hamilton et al., Atlas of the Baby Boom Generation (2000), S. Gillon, Boomer Nation (2004); J. Goldsmith, The Long Baby Boom (2008)

Mentioned in ?

fertility

References in periodicals archive ?

Conde Nast's decision to bring the old girl back was based on a fascinating bit of marketing research on the baby-boom generation and its current preoccupations.

There is a class of people, less visible in media and marketing campaigns than the aging baby-boom cohort, that has never bought into the myth of individual isolated effort, although this class touts it loudly to the rest of us.

Burrowing within

Although the focus of Declining Fortunes is clearly the effect of changing economic conditions on postwar parents and their baby-boom children, Newman attempts to deal with a wide array of other related issues--among them, the effects of the events of the 1960s on members of the baby boom generation, the racism and classism that often arise in times of slow economic growth, and the ramifications of slow growth on politics today.

Declining Fortunes: The Withering of the American Dream

The baby-boom generation encompasses over 75 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964--those now between 28 and 46 years of age.

Pennsylvania CPAs find baby boomers worried over finances

The main point of the book is that the retirement of baby-boom women will not replicate the experience of their mothers or male counterparts.

Baby-boom women have narrowed the existing gaps between males and females in educational attainment and job earnings.

When Baby Boom Women Retire

Baby-boom bashing often manifested itself as snide, culturally superior commentary on the inaugural festivities.

Blame it on the baby boom

As the large baby-boom cohort reached working age between 1961 and 1979, the overall working-age population grew 1.9 percent per year, and the number of inexperienced workers seeking jobs bulged (chart 2).

Issues in labor supply

Oddly, SDS's greatest legacy today is probably the vague but pronounced influence its ethos had on baby-boom politicians like Gary Hart, Albert Gore, Jr., and Joseph Biden (the opening line of the Port Huron statement is, "We are people of this generation')--not the strength of the alternative political structures it spawned.

Democracy is in the streets: from Port Huron to the siege of Chicago

If this grand experiment fails, it might push the aging baby-boom generation to demand long-term care benefits in Medicare.

"Fed rate" LTC insurance: The great experiment. (View on Washington)

Indeed, Mead acknowledges that his baby-boom generation is as unanchored and politically unsettled as any in U.S.

Mortal splendor, the American empire in transition

While Vladeck concluded that the odds were stacked against any revolution in long-term care, he expressed hope that the aging baby-boom population would provide an opportunity to drastically change the way care for older Americans is organized, paid for and delivered.