A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. People born during these periods are often called baby boomers;
however, some experts distinguish between those born during such
demographic baby booms and those who identify with the overlapping cultural generations. The cause of baby booms involves various fertility factors. The most well-known baby boom occurred in the mid-twentieth century, beginning in the late 1930s or early 1940s and ending in the 1960s.
It was a change of trend that was largely unexpected, because in most
countries it occurred in the midst of a period of improving economies
and rising living standards.
The baby boom occurred in countries that experienced tremendous
damage from the war and were going through dramatic economic hardships.
These countries include Germany and Poland. In the United States the
baby boom was attributed to the number of veterans returning home after
the war ended in 1945. It also was due to the strong post-war American
economy. The U.S. Congress passed the G.I. Bill of Rights to encourage
home ownership and higher levels of education by charging very low or no
interest at all on loans for veterans. Getting settled in with a more
comfortable economic position allowed families to have a place to live,
be educated, and start having babies. "Now thriving on the American
Dream, life was simple, jobs were plentiful, and a record number of
babies were born."
The U.S. birthrate exploded after World War II. From 1941 to 1961, more than 65 million children were born in the United States.
At the height of this baby boom, a child was born every seven seconds
on average. Factors that contributed to the baby boom consisted of young
couples who started families after putting off marriage during the War,
government encouragement of growth of families through the aid of GI
benefits, and popular culture that celebrated pregnancy, parenthood, and
large families.
The baby boom was the result of couples holding off on having
children due to the Great Depression and World War II. Once the baby
boom began, the average woman started getting married around the age of
20 instead of 22. Couples were eager to have babies after the war ended
because they knew that the world would be a safer place to start a
family.
Another leading cause that led to the baby boom was that people
were able to afford moving out to the suburbs to raise a family instead
of living in the city. Additionally, the cost of living in the suburbs
was very low, especially for those returning from the military. This was
also the time period where women were encouraged to take on their "roles", meaning that they were encouraged to stay home as a housewife along with being a mother while the husband worked.
The market became a seller's market. Many families were adapting
to popular culture changes that included purchasing TVs, opening credit
card accounts, and buying mouse ears to wear while watching The Mickey Mouse Club.
Once economists realized how many children were being born, concern
arose about enough resources being available, especially when those born
in the baby boom time period started having kids of their own.
The issues of the baby boom time period are that it could hugely
impact the population change and cause social and economic impacts. One
economic impact of the baby boom is the concern that when baby boomers
get older and retire, the dependency ratio
will increase. The Census Bureau estimates that the dependency ratio in
the United States will be 65 by 2020 and reach a record-breaking high
of 75, the highest it has been since the 1960s and 1970s when those baby
boomers were children.
The economics of an area or country could benefit from the baby boom:
It could increase the demand of housing, transportation, facilities and
more for the increasing population. With an increase in population, the
demand for food also increased. If a country cannot keep up with a
rapidly increasing population, it could cause a food shortage and
insufficient health care facilities. Without the sufficient supplies
needed for the population, it could cause poor health that could lead to
deaths in the population.
Africa
"According
to the new UNICEF report, almost 2 billion babies will be born in
Africa between 2015 and 2050 and the 2 main driving forces behind this
surge in births and children are continued high fertility rates and
rising numbers of women able to have children of their own."
The HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa has contributed locally to a population boom. Aid money used for contraceptives
has been diverted over the past two decades into fighting HIV, which
lead the number of babies born far outstripping the deaths from AIDS.
France
After being in a lull of low birth rates, France experienced a baby boom after 1945.
The sense that the population was too small, especially in regard to
the more powerful Germany, was a common theme in the early 20th century.
Pronatalist policies were proposed in the 1930s and implemented in the 1940s.
In addition, there was steady immigration, especially from former French colonies in North Africa. The population of France
grew from 40.5 million in 1946 to nearly 50 million in 1968 and just
under 60 million by 1999. The farm population declined sharply, from 35%
of the workforce in 1945 to under 5% by 2000. By 2004, France had the
second highest birthrate in Europe, behind only Ireland.
Japan
The number and the rate of births in Japan
- The First Baby Boom
In Japan, the first baby boom occurred between 1947 and 1949.
The number of births in the past three years exceeds 2.5 million every
year, bringing the total number of births to about 8 million. The 2.69
million births in 1949 are the largest ever in postwar statistics. The people born in this period is called the "baby boom generation" (団塊の世代, dankai no sedai, means "the generation of nodule").
- The Second Baby Boom
It often refers to a period of more than 2 million births from 1971
to 1974, with the number of births in 1973 peaking at 2.09 million.
However, unlike the first baby boom, this increase in the number of
births is an increase in the number of births not accompanied by an
increase in the total fertility rate. The people born during this period
is often called "baby boom junior" (団塊ジュニア, dankai junia, means "the
juniors of the generation of nodule").
The rate of births has been declining since the second baby boom.
Romania
- Decreţei: (1967–1989), A baby boom in Romania was caused by a ban on abortion and contraception, consequently, hospitals became overcrowded. From the Chicago Tribune on December 26, 1967, the article stated that a doctor had to beg a woman to have a home birth due to overcrowding at the hospital, "Please stay at home, we have no rooms". The column also stated how "pregnant women were having to share hospitals beds and sickly babies were being put into oxygen tents in groups". The baby boom in Romania caused problems that began affecting the health of its residents. Abortion before being banned in 1966 was the only form of birth control, leaving people without access to that form of family planning. Another set of policies from Romania's Leader at the time, Nicolae Ceausescu, contributed to the baby boom based upon ethno-nationalism. To encourage people to have more children from dominant ethnic groups, the Romanian Government created financial incentives to have children, specifically a tax for anyone over 25 without a child. This motivated a lot of people to have children at a younger age, and with ethnic Romanian partners. Which lead to an initial surge of babies being born but then began to decrease in the birth rate to 14.3 births per 1000 individuals by the 80's. In an effort to ramp up birth rates Ceausescu made new policies. Changing the legal age to marry to 15, social media campaigns and mandating monthly gynecological exams to all women of children bearing age. This caused a near 5x increase in spending for incentives, yet managed to decrease the birth rate by 40%.
United States
The term "baby boom" most often refers to the post–World War II baby boom (1941–1964) when the number of annual births exceeded 2 per 100 women (or approximately 1% of the total population size). There are an estimated 78.3 million Americans who were born during this period. The term is a general demographic and is also applicable to other similar population expansions.
United States birth rate (births per 1000 population per year). The United States Census Bureau defines the demographic birth boom as between 1946 and 1964 (red).
Recent baby boom periods include the following:
- Post–World War I baby boom: (1918–1929)
- Mid-twentieth century baby boom, commonly called post-World War II baby boom: Years of duration vary, depending on the source.
- Echo Boomers (Millennials): (researchers and commentators use birth years typically ranging from the early 1980s to the mid 1990s) are mostly the children of baby boomers and a few members of the Silent Generation and Gen X.
Effects on dependency caused by the Baby boom (1941–1964)
During the baby boom the U.S. experienced after World War II, the dramatic rise in births led to a higher dependency ratio, which means that there is a large portion of the population under the age of 15 and over the age of 65 that relies on those in the work force (ages 15–64). The Cohort
of this baby boom is expected to once again increase the dependency
ratio once the majority is over the age of 65, as these people will no
longer be part of the work force.
Some of the 75 million baby boomers began to reach retirement age in
2011. In the year 2000, only 12.4% of the population was 65 or over and
is predicted to rise to 18% by 2020, largely due to the baby boom.
Currently the Government supports social security to the population over
65, which may lead the states increasing their budget to fund programs
like Medicaid.
Israel
Israel has been in a constant baby boom since independence, with the highest fertility rate in the OECD at 3.1 children per woman.
In addition to having the highest fertility rate among developed
nations, it is the only developed country to have never had a
sub-replacement fertility rate. Israel's baby boom began in 1947, a year
before independence, when the fertility rate among the Yishuv, or Jewish population of what was then Mandatory Palestine, began to rise dramatically as a result of the aftereffects of the Holocaust and a expectations of Jewish independence.
