The baby boom reshaped family life and drove population growth in many countries. In this article, we explore the key patterns in seven charts.

The baby boom was a period that saw a surge in birth rates alongside a dramatic decline in death rates due to advances in medicine and public health.

This combination led to rapid population growth in many high-income countries, which influenced their societies for generations.

However, many other aspects of the baby boom are less well-known, including when it began, how marriage rates changed, and how the ages of mothers at childbirth changed.

What were the main patterns of the baby boom? In this article, we’ll explore key data on the baby boom in seven charts.

Birth rates began to rise in the 1930s, before World War II

It wasn’t just that married couples had more children, but more people got married in the first place

The average age of women at childbirth declined as more younger women began having children

American women had more children, and earlier in their lifetimes, than previous generations

Women living through the baby boom had more children in total

Two-fifths of women had four children or more, and fewer women had no children

Conclusion

When we think of the baby boom, we often imagine a surge in births in the United States starting at the end of World War II, as soldiers returned home and families began to grow.

But although this is part of the story, the trend is much broader, as we’ve seen in this article.

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