Editing Baby boomers (section)

== Date range and definitions ==
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| image1 = US Birth Rates.svg
| caption1 = United States birth rate (births per 1,000 population per year): The segment for the years 1946 to 1964 is highlighted in red, with birth rates peaking in 1949, dropping steadily around 1958, and reaching prewar Depression-era levels in 1965.<ref name="CDC">{{cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/vsus/vsus_1980_2003.htm |title=Vital Statistics of the United States: 1980–2003 |work=Table 1-1. Live births, birth rates, and fertility rates, by race: United States, 1909–2003 |date=June 6, 2019 |publisher=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics |access-date=December 8, 2019 |archive-date=December 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203090827/https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/vsus/vsus_1980_2003.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
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| caption2 = An uptick occurred in birthrates between the late 1940s and early 1960s when the economy was doing well.
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A significant degree of consensus exists around the date range of the baby boomer cohort, with the generation considered to cover those born from 1946 to 1964 by various organizations such as the [[Merriam-Webster]] Online Dictionary,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/baby%20boomer|title=Definition of Baby Boomer|dictionary=Merriam-Webster|access-date=April 20, 2020|archive-date=April 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417141302/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/baby%20boomer|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Pew Research Center]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Defining generations: Where Millennials end and post-Millennials begin|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/defining-generations-where-millennials-end-and-post-millennials-begin|access-date=May 8, 2018|publisher=Pew Research Center|date=March 2018|archive-date=May 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508030823/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/defining-generations-where-millennials-end-and-post-millennials-begin/}}</ref> U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sincavage |first1=Jessica |title=The labor force and unemployment:three generations of change |url=https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2004/06/art2full.pdf |website=U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) |access-date=April 20, 2020 |archive-date=December 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203213615/https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2004/06/art2full.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Angeles |first1=Domingo |title=Younger baby boomers and number of jobs held |url=https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2016/data-on-display/younger-baby-boomers-and-number-of-jobs-held.htm |website=U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) |access-date=April 20, 2020 |archive-date=April 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200403105802/https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2016/data-on-display/younger-baby-boomers-and-number-of-jobs-held.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Federal Reserve Board]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. since 1989|url=https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/table/#quarter:119;series:Net%20worth;demographic:age;population:all;units:shares|access-date=January 4, 2020|publisher=Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System|date=December 23, 2019|archive-date=January 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102044357/https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/table/#quarter:119;series:Net%20worth;demographic:age;population:all;units:shares|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Australian Bureau of Statistics]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/1CD2B1952AFC5E7ACA257298000F2E76?OpenDocument|title=Population by Age and Sex, Australia, States and Territories|date=December 20, 2018|access-date=March 18, 2019|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics|archive-date=March 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326055924/http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/1CD2B1952AFC5E7ACA257298000F2E76?OpenDocument|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Gallup (company)|Gallup]],<ref>{{cite web |title=This Week on Gallup.com: Looking Once More at Baby Boomers |url=https://news.gallup.com/opinion/queue/181277/week-gallup-com-looking-once-baby-boomers.aspx |website=Gallup |access-date=April 20, 2020 |archive-date=June 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614202007/https://news.gallup.com/opinion/queue/181277/week-gallup-com-looking-once-baby-boomers.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> [[YouGov]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=YouGov Ratings FAQ|url=https://yougov.co.uk/topics/science/survey-results(popup:ratings/faq)|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223220625/https://yougov.co.uk/topics/science/survey-results%28popup:ratings/faq%29|archive-date=February 23, 2021|access-date=February 23, 2021|website=yougov.co.uk|language=en-gb}}</ref> and Australia's Social Research Center.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Pennay|first1=Darren|last2=Bongiorno|first2=Frank|date=January 25, 2019|title=Barbeques and black armbands: Australians' attitudes to Australia Day|url=https://www.srcentre.com.au/bbqsandblackarmbands/Barbeques%20and%20black%20armbands%20-%20A%20Life%20in%20Australia%20report%20by%20D%20Pennay%20and%20F%20Bongiorno.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190303212629/https://srcentre.com.au/bbqsandblackarmbands/Barbeques%20and%20black%20armbands%20-%20A%20Life%20in%20Australia%20report%20by%20D%20Pennay%20and%20F%20Bongiorno.pdf|archive-date=March 3, 2019|access-date=March 18, 2019|publisher=Social Research Center}}</ref>  The [[United States Census Bureau]] defines baby boomers as "individuals born in the United States between mid-1946 and mid-1964".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Colby |first1=Sandra L. |last2=Ortman |first2=Jennifer M. |date=May 2014 |title=The Baby Boom Cohort in the United States: 2012 to 2060 |url=https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/demo/p25-1141.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506170405/https://www.census.gov/prod/2014pubs/p25-1141.pdf |archive-date=May 6, 2019 |access-date=March 18, 2019 |publisher=United States Census Bureau}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Bump |first1=Philip |title=Here Is When Each Generation Begins and Ends, According to Facts |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/03/here-is-when-each-generation-begins-and-ends-according-to-facts/359589/ |access-date=March 18, 2019 |work=The Atlantic |date=March 25, 2014 |archive-date=March 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190318040628/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/03/here-is-when-each-generation-begins-and-ends-according-to-facts/359589/ |url-status=live }}</ref>  [[Landon Jones]], in his book ''Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation'' (1980), defined the span of the baby-boom generation as extending from 1946 through 1964.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Jones|first1=Landon Y.|date=November 6, 2015|title=How 'baby boomers' took over the world|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.lannyjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/How-%E2%80%98baby-boomers%E2%80%99-took-over-the-world-The-Washington-Post.pdf|access-date=March 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328225337/https://www.lannyjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/How-%E2%80%98baby-boomers%E2%80%99-took-over-the-world-The-Washington-Post.pdf|archive-date=March 28, 2019}}</ref>

Others have delimited the baby boom period differently. Authors [[William Strauss]] and [[Neil Howe]], in their 1991 book ''Generations'', define the social generation of boomers as that cohort born from 1943 to 1960, who were too young to have any personal memory of World War II, but old enough to remember the [[History of the United States (1945–1964)|postwar American High]] before [[John F. Kennedy]]'s [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassination]].<ref>{{Cite book |first1=Neil |last1=Howe |first2=William |last2=Strauss |title=Generations: The History of Americas Future, 1584 to 2069 |year=1991 |publisher=William Morrow |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/generationshisto00stra_0/page/299 299–316] |isbn=978-0-688-11912-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/generationshisto00stra_0/page/299 }}</ref> Furthermore, a number of other sources mention that the baby boomer generation were born between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1965.<ref>{{cite web|title=How Today's Baby Boomers are Redifining the Geriatric Care|publisher=MD Linx|url=https://www.mdlinx.com/article/how-today-s-baby-boomers-are-redefining-geriatric-care/4yGXcimnHPjL3ERCX5Gyu6|access-date=May 13, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=What Does the OK Boomer Mean|publisher=HuffPost|url=https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/what-does-ok-boomer-mean_ca_5dc1f669e4b08b735d61a248|access-date=May 13, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Older Workers Face an Increase for Unemployment Rates|work=Law.Com|url=https://www.law.com/njlawjournal/almID/1202446680498|access-date=May 13, 2025}}</ref>

[[David Foot]], author of ''Boom, Bust and Echo: Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the 21st&nbsp;Century'' (1997), defined a Canadian boomer as someone born from 1947 to 1966, the years in which more than 400,000 babies were born. He acknowledges, though, that this is a demographic definition, and that culturally, it may not be as clear-cut.<ref>{{cite news|author=Canada |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060623.dates24/BNStory/BabyBoomers/home |title=By definition: Boom, bust, X and why |work=The Globe and Mail |date=June 24, 2006 |access-date=August 27, 2010 |location=Toronto |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520180757/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060623.dates24/BNStory/BabyBoomers/home |archive-date=May 20, 2009 }}</ref> Doug Owram argues that the Canadian boom took place from 1946 to 1962, but that culturally, boomers everywhere were born between the late war years and about 1955 or 1956. Those born in the 1960s might feel disconnected from the cultural identifiers of the earlier boomers.<ref name="Owram1997xiv">{{cite book| last = Owram| first = Doug| year = 1997| title = Born at the Right Time| isbn = 978-0-8020-8086-8| publisher = University of Toronto Press| location = Toronto| page = [https://archive.org/details/bornatrighttimeh0000owra/page/ xiv]| url = https://archive.org/details/bornatrighttimeh0000owra/page/}}</ref>

French politician [[Michèle Delaunay]] in her book ''Le Fabuleux Destin des Baby-Boomers'' (2019), places the baby-boom generation in France between 1946 and 1973, and in Spain between 1958 and 1975.<ref name="Delaunay-2019">{{Cite book|last=Delaunay, Michèle [VNV]|title=Le fabuleux destin des baby-boomers|year=2019|isbn=978-2-259-28062-4|location=Paris|oclc=1134671847}}</ref> Another French academic, Jean-François Sirinelli, in an earlier study, ''Les Baby-Boomers: Une génération 1945-1969'' (2007) denotes the generation span between 1945 and 1969.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jean-François|first=Sirinelli|title=Les Baby-Boomers: Une génération 1945-1969|publisher=Hachette Littératures|year=2007|isbn=978-2-01-279371-2|location=France|language=French}}</ref>
[[File:UH-1D helicopters in Vietnam 1966.jpg|thumb|Baby boomers are sometimes referred to as the "Vietnam generation" due to the significance of the War in Vietnam. In the United States, roughly 1 in 10 baby boomer men served in the [[United States Armed Forces|U.S. Armed Forces]]. Some of them were deployed to Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wright |first=James |date=April 11, 2017 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Baby Boomer War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/11/opinion/the-baby-boomer-war.html |website=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Barrett |first=Claire |date=October 17, 2017 |title=A Generation Goes to War |url=https://www.historynet.com/generation-goes-war/ |access-date=February 3, 2024 |website=HistoryNet |language=en-US}}</ref>]]
The [[Office for National Statistics]] has described the UK as having had two baby booms in the middle of the 20th century, one in the years immediately after World War II and one  around the 1960s with a noticeably lower birth rate (but still significantly higher than that seen in the 1930s or later in the '70s) during part of the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=March 27, 2020|title=Our population – Where are we? How did we get here? Where are we going? - Office for National Statistics|url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/ourpopulationwherearewehowdidwegetherewherearewegoing/2020-03-27#births-and-deaths-since-1901|access-date=February 23, 2021|website=www.ons.gov.uk|archive-date=November 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118184424/https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/ourpopulationwherearewehowdidwegetherewherearewegoing/2020-03-27#births-and-deaths-since-1901|url-status=live}}</ref>  [[Bernard Salt]] places the Australian baby boom between 1946 and 1961.<ref name="Salt2004" /><ref>{{cite web|last1=Salt|first1=Bernard|date=November 2003|title=The Big Shift|url=http://clrc.gov.au/agd/EMA/rwpattach.nsf/viewasattachmentpersonal/(C86520E41F5EA5C8AAB6E66B851038D8)~1103BookreviewNotesfield.pdf/$file/1103BookreviewNotesfield.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305125344/http://clrc.gov.au/agd/EMA/rwpattach.nsf/viewasattachmentpersonal/%28C86520E41F5EA5C8AAB6E66B851038D8%29~1103BookreviewNotesfield.pdf/%24file/1103BookreviewNotesfield.pdf|archive-date=March 5, 2009|access-date=March 28, 2019|website=The Australian Journal of Emergency Management}}</ref>

In the US, the generation can be segmented into two broadly defined cohorts: the "leading-edge baby boomers" are individuals born between 1946 and 1955, those who came of age during the [[Vietnam War]] and Civil Rights eras.<ref name="Bell">{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Bell|first=Kenton|date=October 8, 2013|entry=baby boomer definition|dictionary=Open Education Sociology Dictionary|entry-url=https://sociologydictionary.org/baby-boomer/|language=en-US|title=Baby boomer definition &#124; Open Education Sociology Dictionary|access-date=June 11, 2021|archive-date=June 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610062158/https://sociologydictionary.org/baby-boomer/|url-status=live}}</ref> This group represents slightly more than half of the generation, or roughly 38,002,000 people. The other half of the generation, usually called "[[Generation Jones]]", but sometimes also called names like the "late boomers" or "trailing-edge baby boomers", was born between 1956 and 1964, and came of age after Vietnam and the [[Watergate scandal]].<ref name="Bell"/><ref>{{Cite web|last=Fleming|first=John|date=January 30, 2015|title=Baby Boomers Are Opening Their Wallets|url=https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/181367/baby-boomers-opening-wallets.aspx|access-date=June 10, 2021|website=Gallup.com|language=en|archive-date=June 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610062149/https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/181367/baby-boomers-opening-wallets.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Original Generation X, 1954–63 |url=http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2008/01/generation_x.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303165113/http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2008/01/generation_x.html |archive-date=March 3, 2020 |access-date=July 31, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Baby Boomers Are Different Than Generation Jones – We're Proud Of Being Old |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/bartastor/2018/07/30/baby-boomers-are-different-than-generation-jones-were-proud-of-being-old/#28c28dbb2b2a |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715083401/https://www.forbes.com/sites/bartastor/2018/07/30/baby-boomers-are-different-than-generation-jones-were-proud-of-being-old/#28c28dbb2b2a |archive-date=July 15, 2020 |access-date=July 31, 2020 |website=[[Forbes]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=May 28, 2020 |title=How to tell if you're part of 'Generation Jones' |url=https://www.considerable.com/life/people/generation-jones-group-boomers-gen-x/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819070635/https://www.considerable.com/life/people/generation-jones-group-boomers-gen-x/ |archive-date=August 19, 2020 |access-date=July 31, 2020}}</ref> This second cohort includes about 37,818,000 people.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Brent |last=Green |title=Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers: Perceptions, Principles, Practices, Predictions |year=2006 |publisher=Paramount Market Publishing |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/marketingtoleadi0000gree_a7w2/page/4 4–5] |isbn=978-0-9766973-5-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/marketingtoleadi0000gree_a7w2/page/4 }}</ref> Others use the term Generation Jones to refer to a [[cusp generation]], which includes those born in the latter half of the Baby Boomers to the early years of Generation X, with a typical range of 1954 to 1965.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/Generation-Jones/145569|title=Not My Generation|last=Williams|first=Jeffrey J.|date=March 31, 2014|website=The Chronicle of Higher Education|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009033716/https://www.chronicle.com/article/Generation-Jones/145569|archive-date=October 9, 2017|access-date=January 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/archives/display_detail.htm?StoryID=91159 |title=Seniors moving forward in reverse |newspaper=The Frederick News-Post |author=Adam Avery |date=December 19, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206110817/http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/archives/display_detail.htm?StoryID=91159|archive-date=February 6, 2009|access-date=August 2, 2010}}</ref><ref name="AP080111">{{Cite news|url=http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1372376,w-obama-baby-boomer-era-011109.article|title=In Obama, many see an end to the baby boomer era|first=Jocelyn|last=Noveck|newspaper=Chicgo Sun-Times|agency=Associated Press|date=January 25, 2009|access-date=December 31, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090125183857/http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1372376,w-obama-baby-boomer-era-011109.article |archive-date=January 25, 2009 }}</ref>
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