Baby Boomer Age Range

What years are Baby Boomers?

Baby Boomers were born from 1946 through 1964. This is the most settled of all generation ranges because it is tied to a measurable event: the jump in births after World War II. It is also the only generation whose dates are recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau, while the others are research or marketing conventions.

How big is the Baby Boom generation?

About 76 million babies were born in the United States between 1946 and 1964. Annual births passed 4 million in 1954 and stayed above that level every year through 1964, reaching about 4.3 million in the peak years. U.S. births did not top 4 million again until 1989.

In 1964, Boomers made up 37% of the U.S. population. Thanks largely to immigration, the generation kept growing after the boom ended and peaked at about 79 million people in 1999. Pew Research Center estimates there were about 67 million Boomers in 2024, roughly 20% of the population. The Census Bureau notes that by 2030, all Baby Boomers will be older than 65.

Where the name came from

Newspaper writers described the postwar rise in births as a "boom" as early as 1951. The phrase "baby boomer" appeared in print in the 1960s and became the standard name for the generation by the 1970s.

What shaped Baby Boomers

• Postwar prosperity. Boomers grew up during a long economic expansion, with fast-growing suburbs and rising incomes.
• Television. Boomers were the first generation to grow up with TV in most homes.
• The 1960s. Older Boomers came of age during the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and draft, the 1969 moon landing and the counterculture.
• The 1970s. Younger Boomers came of age later, during Watergate, the 1973 oil crisis and a weaker economy.

That split between older and younger Boomers is large enough that some writers treat people born from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s as their own group, Generation Jones.

Baby Boomer FAQ