Most historians say the baby boomer phenomenon most likely involved a combination of factors: people wanting to start the families that they put off during World War II and the Great Depression, and a sense of confidence that the coming era would be safe and prosperous.
/ˌbeɪbi ˈbum/ The baby boom was the period after World War II in the United States when more babies than usual were born. A baby boom can refer to any increase in the population, but it usually refers to the time just after World War II when the population went through the roof in the United States.
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.
The consistent pattern across the history of the baby boom generation was that its scale forced American institutions to adapt. More schools were built. Teenagers were targeted as a new market. TV shows and movies were created to appeal to the generation.
The core values of Baby Boomers include optimism, team orientation, personal gratification, health and wellness, personal growth, youthfulness, work, and involvement. When a workplace environment supports their values Baby Boomers are more satisfied with their jobs.
The term "baby boom" is often used to refer specifically to the post–World War II (1946–1964) baby boom in the United States and Europe. In the US the number of annual births exceeded 2 per 100 women (or approximately 1% of the total population size). An estimated 78.3 million Americans were born during this period.
The Baby Boomer Generation (born around 1946 up to 1964) struggled with the concept of child discipline, especially traditional discipline techniques from their own childhoods. Baby Boomers engaged in more discussions with their children and tried to be more nurturing than critical.
Baby boomers have been reported to have higher rates of substance abuse than any previous generation (62). Within the next two decades, this group will become the largest group of elderly persons that American society has ever had. As this cohort ages, the number of elderly drug abusers in the population may increase.
Generation Jones and the Boomers
The Baby Boomer generation was born between the post-war years of 1946 to 1964. A subset of the Boomers, Generation Jones, was born in the later years of the Baby Boom, from 1954 to 1964.
Baby boomers are anyone born from 1946 to 1964. Millennials are anyone born from 1981 to 1996.
There were actually a total of 76 million births in the United States from 1946 to 1964, the 19 years usually called the “baby boom.” Of the 76 million baby boomers born, nearly 11 million had died by 2012, leaving some 65.2 million survivors.
Currently, there's around 70 million people of the Baby Boomer generation living in the United States as of today. Though rapidly approaching retirement age, if they aren't already there, these aren't your grandma's grandmas.
How old are baby boomers? In 2023, baby boomers are celebrating birthdays between the ages of 59 and 77. They are just below the silent generation, born between 1928 and 1945, who are between 95 and 78 years old in 2023.
Baby boomers are willing and expecting to work with others. In terms of leadership style, baby boomers accept the chain of command. This means that they expect their managers to give direction and to lead them towards organizational goals.
What wasn't foreseen was how long Baby Boomers would live. When the first Boomers were born, the average life expectancy was 63 years old. Today, Boomers can expect to live to almost 79 years.
Baby boomers often aim to work as long as it takes to reach their goals and try to differentiate themselves by attaining the promotion, raise or acknowledgment they want. This generation has experienced the benefits of hard work and dedication, which is something they expect from their employer.
As seen in the presented Table, according to the Baby Boomers generation, the main values in life were family security, tranquility, and a sense of accomplishment. However, such values as true friendship, equality, and pleasurable and leisured life were seen as rather insignificant.
Baby Boomers have always had an outsize presence compared with other generations. They peaked at 78.8 million in 1999 and remained the largest living adult generation until 2019. By midcentury, the Boomer population is projected to dwindle to 16.2 million.
It was interesting. The webinar was about the fact that the people born between 1946 and 1964, known as the Baby Boomer generation, are the wealthiest generation in Australian history. According to the ABS, about 5.7 million Baby Boomers in Australia make up about 22% of the population.
Their higher net worth is expected: with most baby boomers financially planning for at least a few more decades, they benefit from wealth earned from long careers and have more robust retirement accounts than the silent generation, who have dipped further into retirement savings.
Boomers Less Likely Than Millennials to Declutter
With a traditional work ethic, baby boomers have been known to view possessions as a measurement of success. With parents who lived through the Great Depression, it makes sense baby boomers prefer to keep things for future use.
Some famous Baby Boomers…
The youngest celebrity Boomers include Keanu Reeves, Wanda Sykes, Don Cheadle, Nicolas Cage, Courtney Cox, Rob Lowe, Courtney Love, Vivica A. Fox, and supermodel Elle Macpherson. American presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump are all also baby boomers.