Everyone has heard of the “Baby boom” generation, defined as those born between 1946 and 1964.  The grouping was arbitrarily by measuring the birth rate when it shot up in 1946, and then concluding it ended when it hit the same level in 1964. Completely arbitrary.

You can see this “baby boom” in this U.S. fertility rate over time, chart. They arbitrarily picked 1946 for the start, and 1964 for the end.

This grouping is bogus, however. The purpose of creating a group label is to identify common characteristics – mostly for marketing purposes. However, there is little in common with those born early in this period and those born late.

Not surprisingly, there is another characterization based on common characteristics – and it inserts a new generation label between the “Baby boom” and “Generation X” and calls it “Generation Jones”. The name comes from the tail end of the “baby boom” group trying hard to keep up with those who came before, hence “keeping up with the Joneses”. As you can see from the fertility rate chart, those at the tail end of the “baby boom” entered a work world filled with plentiful supply of new, young workers – and whose upward mobility was hindered by the first half of the baby boom filling many of the positions.

Here is a population pyramid for 1984 showing the now older “baby boom” as a large cohort from about age 18 to upper 30s, all competing with one another for jobs and promotions.

Researchers point out that those born early in the “baby boom” have distinct memories of such things as the first satellites launched into space, the first human launched into space, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King and RFK. Those born at the end of the so-called “Baby boom” remember none of these issues. (I have only a very vague memory of seeing a photo of the JFK funeral train, no memories of the MLK assassination, and a vague memory of the RFK assassination)

These “big issues” occurred at a point in our child and youth development where they created not only memories, but ways of viewing the world around us. Those born at the beginning of the Baby Boom had very different lives than those born at the end. A side effect is those born at the end are still called Baby Boomers yet have far more in common with the following generation than “their” generation.

It is easy to see how someone invented the 20-year Baby Boom generation concept based solely on birth data – but it fails to capture any commonality between early and later members of the group.

I was glad to learn about this – I am at the very tail end of the Baby Boom and never felt connected to those who are 10-20 years older than me, and whose lives and careers grew forward in a different world than mine.

Related articles
Coldstreams