When was the baby boom?

Answer 1

From about 1946 to 1963, when the contraceptive pill reduced the birthrate sharply.

_____

Once the war was over millions of men returned to the U.S. (and also Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada) who had been overseas for as much as 4 years.

Over the next 5 years these millions of men married millions of women and created millions of babies. The number of babies was much greater than in years prior to the war. It is said that without the economic prosperity and GI Bill of the postwar years the boom would not have been as large as it was. The prosperity, and GI Bill in addition to the confidence these young men had (after defeating the enemy) created a fertile ground for the creation of many families.

The baby boom was also very marked in other Allied countries, too - for example, in Britain.

The baby boom was the result of the end of World War II. Returning soldiers and sailors got married, and started to produce families. This produced a "bulge" in the population curve of most countries which was named "The Baby Boom". The children of post World War II families created challenges to certain government agencies, such as education, health, and social services.

These children are defined as those born between the years of 1946 to 1952. Some sociologists place the latter date as 1956, a ten year spread. As a Boomer, I remember attending school with class sizes of 36 to 40 children as a normal class size. While we put a strain on the school system, the children of the boom were the most literate and well trained generation as evidenced by the SAT scores of 1967...the highest scores ever made by a "class".

Technically, a baby boom is a statistical variation "bulge" in the prediction of population growth. The "Baby Boomers" were the first statistical proof of this bulge.

____

The 'propserity factor' is also very important. The birthrate remained high till the contraceptive pill became widely available in the early 1960s.

In some countries, the baby boom started a little later. For example, in Germany it began around 1950.