A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

A Back to School Special Report on the Baby Boom Echo - August 1997
Annual Number of Births, with Projections: 1947 to 2007

Graphical Image Representation

The surge in the number of births after World War II, nicknamed the "baby boom." lasted through the early 1960s. At the peak in 1957, there were 4.3 million births recorded, an increase of 13 percent from 1947.

By contrast the "baby boom echo" beginning in 1977 had 4.1 million births at its peak in 1990, reflecting a 25 percent increase over this period. Unlike the decline after the previous baby boom, where births dropped down to 3.1 million in the early seventies, the number of births is not projected to fall off, but remain fairly stable at around 4 million. Long-range projections by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, indicate a rising number of births thereafter, rising to 4.2 million in 2010 and 4.6 million in 2020.



SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Projections of Education Statistics to 2007; and U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Population Projections of the United States by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1995 to 2050..


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