Baby boom

A baby boom is any 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. Persons born during such a period are often called baby boomers. 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 78.2 million Americans in that generation.^[1] However, the term remains 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)
• Echo baby boom (Generation Y) (1980 to 1999), the children of the post-WWII baby boomers.

Number of births in the United States, 1934 to present

[edit] Other uses

Babyboom is the name of the acoustic reggae/folk side project of Manchester ska punk band Sonic Boom Six.

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Baby Boomers
• Generation
• Generations (book)

[edit] External links

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

[edit] tags:

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008)