Main content
US history
Course: US history > Unit 8
Lesson 1: The postwar era, 1945-1950- Origins of the Cold War
- Communism
- The GI Bill
- African Americans, women, and the GI Bill
- The baby boom
- The growth of suburbia
- The dark side of suburbia
- Start of the Cold War - The Yalta Conference and containment
- Start of the Cold War - The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
- Start of the Cold War - The Berlin airlift and the creation of NATO
- The postwar era, 1945-1950
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The baby boom
Why were so many babies born in the United States after World War II?
Overview
- Following World War II, the United States experienced a greatly elevated birth rate, adding on average 4.24 million new babies to the population every year between 1946 and 1964.
- This generation of "baby boomers" was the result of a strong postwar economy, in which Americans felt confident they would be able to support a larger number of children. Boomers also influenced the economy as a core marketing demographic for products tied to their age group, from toys to records.
- Constituting as much as 40% of the American population, baby boomers have exerted a strong pull on American culture at large, particularly during the social movements of the 1960s.
- Today, most boomers are at or near retirement, prompting concerns for how American society will cope with an aging population.
The baby boom
Like many industrialized Western nations, in the early twentieth century the United States was experiencing a gradual decline in its birthrate. As more Americans moved off the farm and into the city, having a large family slowly transformed from a good labor investment to a poor economic choice. Consequently, in the midst of the Great Depression, the American birthrate fell to its lowest point yet, to just 18.4 live births per thousand population.start superscript, 1, end superscript
World War II, however, had a profound effect on the American birth rate, which skyrocketed in a stunning and unexpected reversal of the prewar decline. A combination of factors produced this baby boom: soldiers returning home from the war were weary of adventure and wished to settle down into family life with their sweethearts, and GI Bill benefits promised the decent pay, access to good jobs, and affordable housing that made raising a family possible. After more than fifteen years of economic uncertainty, things were finally looking up in the United States, and everyone was determined to make the most of it.
Babies, babies, and more babies
World War II had vast repercussions not only on world politics but also on the American family. Couples rushed to wed and conceive children before soldiers shipped out--in part due to the romance and urgency of wartime, in part due to the extra pay soldiers received if they had families to support.squared The spike in marriages was even larger after the war, as returning soldiers tied the knot. 2.2 million couples married in 1946, a new record that would stand until the 1970s.cubed
With this record number of unions came a record number of babies. The first stirrings of the baby boom became evident as early as 1942, when the historically low birth rates of the Great Depression began to turn around with the birth of "furlough babies" during World War II. It wasn't until nine months after the war's end, however, that the boom began in earnest: before demobilization only about 200,000 babies were born in the United States per month, but by the end of 1946 that figure had increased to nearly 350,000 babies. 20% more babies were born in 1946 than in 1945. By 1947, the number of live births per thousand population jumped to 26.6.start superscript, 4, end superscript
But the baby boom wasn't just a quick spike in births after the end of World War II. The elevated American fertility rate continued for another 18 years. On average, 4.24 million babies were born per year between 1946 and 1964, when birth rates finally began to decline again. In 1964, the 76.4 million babies born during the baby boom generation constituted a whopping 40% of the US population, which was then about 192 million.start superscript, 5, end superscript
Postwar domesticity and its economic benefits
Why did the birth rate rise so suddenly and remain elevated for so long? Both men and women had access to relatively reliable forms of birth control, so for the most part couples were making a conscious decision to have more children. The World War II generation, in fact, was the most marriage- and family-oriented in US history: 96.4% of women and 94.1% of men in this cohort got married, and at a younger age than their forebears. They also had more children, sooner after marriage and spaced closer together, than earlier generations.start superscript, 6, end superscript
Historians and demographers have pointed out a number of possible reasons for this increased devotion to domesticity and child-rearing after the war, from government propaganda extolling the virtues of apple-pie American life during the war to a yearning for the security offered by "normal" family life during an era when fear of the atomic bomb pervaded society. One thing is certain: these high fertility rates closely correlate with a period of unprecedented economic prosperity, as well as optimism that the prosperity would last. After years of barely getting by during the Great Depression and enduring shortages and rationing during the war, Americans finally could afford to have a lot of children, so they did.start superscript, 7, end superscript
The baby boom was not only a result of the healthy economy but also a major contributor to it. An enormous generation of babies became an enormous generation of children, teenagers, young adults, adults, and (more recently) seniors. As the baby boomers aged, manufacturers and advertisers targeted this gigantic demographic. As babies, the boomers invigorated the market for toys, candy, and washing machines. As children, their proliferation drove the construction of new schools and suburbs. As teenagers, they dominated the popular culture of the 1950s and 1960s, buying clothing and records.start superscript, 8, end superscript As adults, they gave birth to an "echo boom" generation of children, a smaller but still significant generation of kids born between 1976 and 2001.start superscript, 9, end superscript
Significance of the baby boom
The generation born in the twenty years following World War II has been a defining force in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s, they were on the forefront of social change in those decades, including the later stages of the Civil Rights Movement, the protest against the Vietnam War, and the second wave of the feminist movement. It might even be said that those movements gained momentum because of the sheer size of the baby boomer generation, whose shared concerns and life experiences as an age cohort exerted an influence on American culture proportional to their numbers.start superscript, 10, end superscript
The unusual size of the baby boomer generation has not had universally positive effects. Like a "pig in a python," as many demographers have characterized the group, the boomer generation has stretched and transformed American society as its members have moved through life. Today, the baby boomers still number about 76 million, as immigrants of approximately the same age have made up for American-born boomers who emigrated or passed away.
As they age, the ratio of retired Americans compared to working Americans will increase significantly, placing considerable strain on Social Security, hospitals, and other government agencies designed to aid the elderly. The Census Bureau estimates that by 2030 one in five Americans will be over the age of 65. Furthermore, as the US birth rate is currently at an all-time low of just 12.5 live births per thousand population, by 2056 Americans aged 65 or older will outnumber those under the age of 18.start superscript, 11, end superscript What effect this aging population will have on US society remains to be seen.
What do you think?
What major historical events and factors caused the baby boom?
How is the baby boom related to both the Great Depression and World War II?
What are some negative consequences of the baby boom?
Want to join the conversation?
How did 2% more of women get married, if there would likely have been more women than men? (I'm assuming there would have been more women than men total, considering war deaths)(6 votes)
From the author:Great question! I think one of the compounding factors might be remarriage. Since the cohort of the baby boomers includes people born between 1945 and 1965, it's quite a large group of people who might have gotten married at any point in their lives. Since women tend to outlive men, it's possible that women had more opportunities for marriage in their lives. I might dig a bit more into this data, though, and see what I can learn.(7 votes)
Why has the birthrate dropped since then, though? Why did this change?(3 votes)
The birthrate has dropped over the years due to a decrease in our economy. To be more specific, the cost of goods is rising faster than work wages. Because of this, it is difficult for families to live with just 1 child, rather than 6. In turn, families have less children to accommodate for the rising prices so they can give their children a half way decent life.(6 votes)
What factors influenced the "1976 and 2001 shows the baby boom "echo.""?(2 votes)
The Baby Boomers were a very large group (approx. 74 million people) and people born between 1976 and 2001 were the children of the Baby Boomers - hence they were sometimes referred to as "Echo Boomers".(2 votes)
What are "furlough babies"?(3 votes)
Soldiers live mainly with persons of their own sex: men with men, for example. Many soldiers have wives and girlfriends "back at home". When soldiers have a few days or weeks off from duty (a furlough) to visit home, sex with those wives and girlfriends is a natural thing to happen. Handy and reliable birth control was not common until the 1960s, so a certain amount of that sex during those furloughs led to a certain amount of pregnancy and, subsequently, to a certain number of babies.(6 votes)
What are some of the effects of an aging society? Hypothetically speaking.(2 votes)- When more people are taking resources from the system than they put into it, more working people are required to put those resources in. When, however, like in Japan, there are old people living longer and longer, and young people producing fewer and fewer children, a crunch comes. Now the people who care for the elderly of Japan are foreign domestic workers, who are not accepted in the society. These foreign workers leave their children home in places like Indonesia to grow up without mothers nearby. The consequences of being cared for by your grandmother so that your mother can go to a different country to take care of someone else's grandmother are bad for an ongoing society.(4 votes)
No one gonna talk about in the "Freedom from Want" photo, the dude in the corner is just staring right back at us... into our souls...(3 votes)
Why do they call it a baby boom? Thanks.(3 votes)
Boom means growth. The birth rate went up, and so it was described as the "Baby Boom".(4 votes)
why did so many people have so much babies(2 votes)- The war was over and the economy was booming. People were living in a time where the U.S. was a superpower. They felt safe and secure. So they started to have babies. In the Great Depression, a baby was a problem another mouth to feed.(3 votes)
Were similar baby booms seen in other countries involved in WW2 after it was over?(1 vote)
Yes, there were. In Europe many countries also show a post-WW2 baby boom.
In the Netherlands, where I'm from, it started a bit later then it did in the USA. Right after the war there was still a lot of rebuilding going on, but then the economy also started to grow and from the 1950's onward there was a baby boom just like in the USA(4 votes)