Baby boomer
A baby boomer is someone born in a period of increased birth rates following World War II. In the United States, demographers have put the generation's birth years at 1946 to 1964, despite the fact that the U.S. birth rate (per 1,000 population) actually began to decline after 1957. William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their book Generations include those conceived by soldiers on leave during the war, putting the generation's birth years at 1943 to 1960. (Strauss and Howe base their years on peer personality, not parental fecundity, so their years may not coincide with the actual "Boom".)
Interestingly, the birth rate actually began to climb in 1940: From that year through 1943, the U.S. birth rate rose four years in a row for the first time since at least the beginning of the 19th Century; following a brief interruption due to the wartime absence of would-be fathers, the "boom" picked up where it left off after World War II ended.
In Canada, the Baby Boom is usually defined as the generation born from 1947 to 1966 – Canadian servicemen were repatriated later than American servicemen, and Canada's birth rate did not start to rise till 1947, and most Canadian demographers prefer to use the later date of 1966 as the boom's end in that country.
Whatever year they were born, Boomers were coming of age at the same time across the world, so that Britain was undergoing Beatlemania while people in America were driving over to Woodstock, organizing against the Vietnam War, or fighting and dying in the same war, Boomers in Italy were dressing in mod clothes and "buying the world a Coke", Boomers in India were seeking new philosophical discoveries, American Boomers in Canada had just found a new home after escaping the draft south of the border, Canadian Boomers were organizing support for Pierre Trudeau, and Boomers in Mexico were discovering new hallucinogenic drugs and rediscovering old ones. Although the term "Boomer" has fallen into global use, the generation is also known in Europe as the Generation of 1968.
The term is derived from a historically significant rise in the birth rate following the Second World War. Several factors have been credited with this rise, among them a general sense of relief at the war's end, and the resurgent economic conditions of the period. At the time this spike in the birthrate was named the "baby boom."
Boomers' typical grandparents were of the Lost Generation; their parents were of the G.I. Generation and Silent Generation. Their children are of Generation X and the Generation Y and their typical grandchildren will be of the Generation Z (born circa 2004-2025).
Unlike the previous generation (the Silent), Boomers lack any childhood recollection of World War II. Unlike the next generation (Generation X), many American Boomers fought in Vietnam or organized opposition to it, or were reaching adolescence or lingering in "post-adolescence" (a term coined for them) as the Vietnam War drew to a close. See also Generation gap.
Celebrities born during the years 1943-1960 include:
Two U.S. Presidents were born during the years 1943-1960: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. It is estimated that the Boom Generation will not hold a plurality in Congress until 2015, the White House until 2021, and will have a majority in the Supreme Court from 2010 to 2030.
Non-U.S. peers of the Boomers include Lech Walesa, Mick Jagger, George Harrison, U2 frontman Bono, Daniel Ortega, Charles, Prince of Wales, and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Their cultural endowments have included the following:
