After World War II (1939–45), American soldiers returned home from
their victory ready to take advantage of a prosperous economy. Whereas
the economic depression of the 1930s led to a drop in marriage and birth
rates, the 1940s told a different story. There were nearly 2.3 million marriages in 1946, an increase of more than six hundred thousand over
1945. This was the first year of what became known as the baby boom,
which lasted throughout most of the 1950s and into the early 1960s.
Between 1948 and 1953, more babies were born than had been over the
previous thirty years. Those born between 1946 and 1964 are called
baby boomers.
The U.S. population increased from 150 million in 1950 to 179
million in 1960. This was the largest ten-year increase in population to
date. By the middle of the next decade, baby boomers themselves
reached childbearing age and birthrates again increased.
Effects
By 1958, children aged fifteen and younger comprised almost one-third
of the American population. Toy sales that year capped at $1.25 billion,
and diaper services were a $50-million enterprise. Many businesses profited from the baby boom, including school furniture companies, car
manufacturers, home builders, even road and highway construction and
paving companies. The suburbanization of America, in which large
areas of homes were built on the outer edges of a city, developed at an
amazing rate as growing families increased the demand for housing outside urban areas.
Baby boomers were the first generation to be raised with televisions
in their homes. This technology gave boomers a sense of generational
identity not available to those who came before them. Boomers’ lives
have been defined by events such as Woodstock (a rock music festival
that took place in Woodstock, New York, in 1969), the Vietnam War
(1954–75) and the accompanying antiwar movement, the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63), the civil
rights movement, and experimental use of recreational drugs and alcohol.
“Overcrowding” is a term directly related to the baby boom generation. First it was the maternity wards of hospitals, which had a difficult
time keeping pace with the upsurge of births. As boomers grew, schools
became overcrowded. The 1950s and 1960s also saw an increase in the
number of children and young adults entering the juvenile justice system. The term “juvenile delinquent” was given to those who did not fit
into the societal norms, and juvenile institutions filled to overflowing. By
the 1970s, colleges and universities experienced twice the number of students entering as in the previous generation. As boomers graduated, the
job market became saturated, and graduates had trouble finding jobs in
their fields. By the 1990s, housing prices skyrocketed as boomers reached
middle age and thus began to settle down. Owning a home—a big
home, if possible—was part of that goal.
The drastic increase in population placed a burden on education,
healthcare, and other social service systems in the United States. Larger
sums of public money were required to maintain these systems and keep
them running smoothly. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 330 baby
boomers turned sixty every hour throughout the year 2006.
The first baby boomer filed for early retirement in October 2007,
thus becoming the first to begin collecting Social Security. Social
Security is a government system into which workers pay a certain
amount, depending on their income level. In return, they can collect
monthly payments once they retire and until they die.