A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom between the years 1946 and 1964, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The term baby boomer is also used in a cultural context. Different groups, organization and individuals may have widely varying opinions on what constitutes a baby boomer. Baby boomers are associated with a rejection or redefinition of traditional values. In Europe and North America boomers are widely associated with privilege, as many grew up in a time of widespread government subsidies in post-war housing and education, and increasing affluence. One feature of boomers was that they tended to think of themselves as a special generation, very different from those that had come before. The phrase baby boom has been used since the late twentieth century to refer to a noticeable temporary increase in the birth rate. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of “baby boomer” is from 1970 in an article in the Washington Post. Howe, well known for their generational theory , define the social generation of Boomers as the cohorts born from 1943 to 1960, who were too young to have any personal memory of World War II, but old enough to remember the postwar American High. The generation can be segmented into two broadly defined cohorts: The leading-edge baby boomers are individuals born between 1946 and 1955. This group represents slightly more than half of the generation, or roughly 38,002,000 people of all races. The other half of the generation was born between 1956 and 1964. Doug Owram argues that the Canadian boom took place from 1943 to 1960, but that culturally boomers (everywhere) were born between the late war years and about 1955 to 1956. This date range in the US correlates neatly with the strongest cultural identifiers of the boomer generation, i.e., the involvement of the US in the Vietnam War and the draft. In 1973 the U.S. both ended its draft and moved to on all volunteer army and ended its military activity in Vietnam. Of course, males born in 1953-1955 could not have foreseen the end of the draft or the war and “came of age” fully internalizing those events. He notes that those born in the years before the actual boom were often the most influential people among boomers; for example, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones and writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who were considerably older than the boomer generation. Those born in the 1960s might feel disconnected from the cultural identifiers of the earlier boomers. There where Seventy-six million American children were born between 1945 and 1964, representing a cohort that is significant on account of its size alone. In 2004, the UK baby boomers held 80% of the UK’s wealth and bought 80%of all top of the range cars, 80% of cruises and 50% of skincare products. The age wave theory suggests an economic slowdown when the boomers start retiring during 2007-2009. Projections for the aging U.S. workforce suggest that by 2020, 25%of employees will be at least 55 years old. Baby boomers control over 80% of personal financial assets and more than half of all consumer spending. They buy 77% of all prescription drugs, 61% of over-the –counter drugs, and 80%of all leisure travel. A survey found that nearly a third of baby boomers polled in the United States would prefer to pass on their inheritance to charities rather than pass it down to their children. Boomers grew up at a time of dramatic social change. In the United States, that social change marked the generation with a strong cultural cleavage, between the proponents of social change and the more conservative. Some analysts believe this cleavage played out politically since the time of the Vietnam War to the mid-2000s, to some extent defining the political landscape and division in the country. In 1993 Time magazine reported on the religious affiliations of baby boomers. Citing Wade Clark Roof, a sociologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the articles stated that about 42% were dropouts from religion were “usually less tied to tradition and less dependable as church, and 25% of boomers were returning to religious practice. The boomers returning to religion were “usually less tied to tradition and less dependable as church members than the loyalists. They are also more liberal, which deepens rifts over issues like abortion and homosexuality. The baby boomers found that their music, most notably rock and roll was another expression of their generational identity. Transistor radios were personal devices that allowed teenagers to listen to the Beatles and the Motown Sound. In the west, baby boomers comprised the first generation to grow up with the television; popular boomer-era show included The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, The Twilight Zone, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Happy Days. In the 1985 and study of U.S generational cohorts by Schuman and Scott, a broad sample of adults was asked, “What world events over the past 50 years were especially important to them. As of 1998, it was reported that, as a generation, boomers had tended to a avoid discussions and planning for their demise and avoided much long-term planning. However, beginning at least as early as that year, there has been a growing dialogue on how to manage aging and end-of-life issues as the generation ages. A number of commentators have argued that baby boomers are in a state of denial regarding their own aging and death and are leaving an undue economic burden on their children for their retirement and care. In 2013, the oldest baby boomers reached a common retirement age in the United States 67 years. The magnitude and timing of baby boomer retirements in the developed world are anticipated to generate a number of unique financial issues. An indication of the importance put on the impact of the boomer was the selection by the Time magazine of the Baby Boom Generation as its 1966 “Man of the year”. As Claire Raines points out in Beyond Generation X, “never before in history had youth been as idealized as they were at this moment”. When Generation X came along it had much to live up to in this author’s opinion. Boomers are often associated with counterculture, the civil rights movement and the feminist cause of the 1970s. 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. More babies were born in 1946 than ever before: 3.4million, 20 percent more than in 1945. This was the beginning of the so called “baby boom.” In 1947, another 3.8 million babies were born; 3.9 million were born in 1952; and more than 4 million were born every year from 1954 until 1964, when the boom finally tapered off. By then, there were 76.4 million “baby boomers” in the United States. They made up almost 40 percent of the nation’s population. What explains this baby boom? Some historians have argued that is was a part of a desire for normalcy after 16 years of depression and war. Others have argued that it was a part of a cold war campaign to fight communism by outnumbering communists. Older Americans, who had postponed marriage and childbirth during the great Depression and World War II, were joined in the nation’s maternity wards by young adults who were eager to start families. Many people in the postwar era looked forward to having children because they were confidence that the future would be one comfort and prosperity. Corporations grew larger and more profitable, labor unions promised generous wages and benefits to their members, and consumer goods were more plentiful and affordable than ever before. As a result, many Americans felt certain that they could give their families all the material things that they themselves had done without. The baby boom and the suburban boom went hand in hand. Almost as soon World War II ended. In addition to having this economic impact the baby boom generation plays an increasingly important role in deciding who gets elected to public office and what laws are passed. The suburban baby boom has a particular confining effect on women. The idea that a woman’s most important job was bear and rear children was hardly a new one, but it took significance in the postwar era. First, it placed the baby boomers squarely at the center of the suburban universe. Second, it generated a great deal of dissatisfaction among women who yearned for a more fulfilling life. As they grew older, some baby boomers began to resist this consumerist suburban ethos. They began to fight instead for social, and political equality and justice for many disadvantage groups. Today the oldest baby boomers are already in their 60s. By 2030, about one in five Americans will be older than 65, and some experts believe that the aging of the population will place a strain on social welfare systems.

The American baby Boom