We were the War Children
1945
When all the soldiers came marching home
Love looks in their eye
-Van Morrison
Almost exactly nine months after World War II ended, “the cry of the baby was heard across the land,” as historian Landon Jones later described the trend.
3.4 million babies were born in 1946, 20 percent more than in 1945 and more than ever in the past.
Ultimately, the “baby boom” of 1946-1964 produced 76.4 million new Americans, ~40 percent of the nation’s population.
- The Baby Boomers compose the generation born immediately following WWII up to the mid-1960s.
- Generation X (Gen X) followed the baby boomers. Demographers typically cite Gen X as early-to-mid 1960s to early 1980s.
- Millennials (Gen Y) were born in early to mid-1980s to mid-1990s or early 2000s. (In 2016, 77 million Millennials surpassed 76 Baby Boomers as the largest birth cohort in the USA)
- Post-Millennials (Generation Z) compose the cohort born after the Millennials. Demographers typically cite the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s.
I thought we were baby boomers. G I’s sent off to fight left their wives pregnant.
Being ripped from the babyboomers leaves me with so much emptiness…life will never be the same.
You and I were WAR Babies, Doug.