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The end of World War II brought a baby boom to many countries, especially Western ones. There is some disagreement as to the precise beginning and ending dates of the post-war baby boom, but it is most often agreed to begin in the years immediately after the war, ending more than a decade later; birth rates in the United States started to decline after 1957. In countries that had suffered heavy war damage, displacement of people and post-war economic hardship, such as Germany and neighboring Poland, the boom began some years later. In May 1951, Sylvia Porter, a columnist for the ''New York Post'', used the term "boom" to refer to the phenomenon of increased births in post war America. == In the United States == Leading-edge Baby boomers are now late middle age and entering senior years. In the economy, many are now retiring and leaving the labor force. In 1946, live births in the U.S. surged from 222,721 in January to 339,499 in October. By the end of the 1940s, about 32 million babies had been born, compared with 24 million in the 1930s. In 1954, annual births first topped four million and did not drop below that figure until 1965, when four out of ten Americans were under the age of 20.〔Figures in Landon Y. Jones, "Swinging 60s?" in ''Smithsonian Magazine'', January 2006, pp 102–107.〕 In the years after the war, couples who could not afford families during the Great Depression made up for lost time; the mood was now optimistic. During the war, unemployment ended and the economy greatly expanded; afterwards the country experienced vigorous economic growth until the 1970s. The G.I. Bill enabled record numbers of people to finish high school and attend college. This led to an increase in stock of skills and yielded higher incomes to families. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Post–World War II baby boom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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