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Generation X is the demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the early-to-mid-1960s as starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s as ending birth years. The generation is sometimes more precisely defined as people born from 1965 to 1980, though the diagrams in this article define it less precisely. By this definition and U.S. Census data, there are 65.2 million Gen Xers in the United States as of 2019. Most members of Generation X are the children of the Silent Generation and early boomers; Xers are also often the parents of millennials and Generation Z.
Baby boomers are the demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is generally defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the post–World War II baby boom. The term is also used outside the United States but the dates, the demographic context and the cultural identifiers may vary. The baby boom has been described variously as a "shockwave" and as "the pig in the python." Baby boomers are often parents of late Gen Xers and Millennials.
A generation is "all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively." It can also be described as, "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and begin to have children." In kinship terminology, it is a structural term designating the parent-child relationship. It is known as biogenesis, reproduction, or procreation in the biological sciences.
Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years, with 1981 to 1996 being a widely accepted defining range for the generation. Most millennials are the children of baby boomers and early Gen Xers; millennials are often the parents of Generation Alpha.
This article is about the demographic history of the United States.
A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. People born during these periods are often called baby boomers; however, some experts distinguish between those born during such demographic baby booms and those who identify with the overlapping cultural generations. The cause of baby booms involves various fertility factors. The most well-known baby boom occurred in the mid-twentieth century, beginning in the late 1930s or early 1940s and ending in the 1960s. It was a change of trend that was largely unexpected, because in most countries it occurred in the midst of a period of improving economies and rising living standards.
Fertility is the quality of being able to produce children. As a measure, the fertility rate is the average number of children that a woman has in her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertility is most commonly considered when there is a difficulty or an inability to reproduce naturally, and this is also referred to as infertility. Experiencing infertility is not discriminatory against any particular individual and the phenomenon is widely acknowledged, with fertility specialists available all over the world to provide expertise for assisting mothers and couples who experience difficulties having a baby.
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society. This movement occurs between layers or tiers in an open system of social stratification. Open stratification systems are those in which at least some value is given to achieved status characteristics in a society. The movement can be in a downward or upward direction. Markers for social mobility, such as education and class, are used to predict, discuss, and learn more about an individual or a group's mobility in society.
The crude birth rate (CBR) in a period is the total number of live births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; population counts from a census, and estimation through specialized demographic techniques. The birth rate is used to calculate population growth. The estimated average population may be taken as the mid-year population.
Zero population growth, sometimes abbreviated ZPG, is a condition of demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither grows nor declines, considered as a social aim by some. According to some, zero population growth, perhaps after stabilizing at some optimum population, is the ideal towards which countries and the whole world should aspire in the interests of accomplishing long-term environmental sustainability. What it means by 'the number of people neither grows nor declines' is that births plus in-migrants equal deaths plus out-migrants.
The total fertility rate (TFR), sometimes also called the fertility rate, absolute/potential natality, period total fertility rate (PTFR), or total period fertility rate (TPFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if:
- She was to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime, and
- She was to live from birth until the end of her reproductive life.
Sub-replacement fertility is a total fertility rate (TFR) that leads to each new generation being less populous than the older, previous one in a given area. The United Nations Population Division defines sub-replacement fertility as any rate below approximately 2.1 children born per woman of childbearing age, but the threshold can be as high as 3.4 in some developing countries because of higher mortality rates. Taken globally, the total fertility rate at replacement was 2.33 children per woman in 2003. This can be "translated" as 2 children per woman to replace the parents, plus a "third of a child" to make up for the higher probability of boys born and mortality prior to the end of a person's fertile life. In 2020, the average global fertility rate was around 2.4 children born per woman.
Peter Richard Grenville Layard, Baron Layard FBA is a British labour economist, currently working as programme director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.
The middle of the 20th century was marked by a significant and persistent increase in fertility rates in many countries of the world, especially in the West, helping create the baby boomer generation. Although the baby boom is traditionally considered to be the post-war phenomenon started immediately after World War II, some demographers place it earlier, at the increase of births during the war or the late 1930s.
Intergenerational equity in economic, psychological, and sociological contexts, is the concept or idea of fairness or justice between generations. The concept can be applied to fairness in dynamics between children, youth, adults and seniors, in terms of treatment and interactions. It can also be applied to fairness between generations currently living and generations yet to be born.
Family economics applies economic concepts such as production, division of labor, distribution, and decision making to the family. It is used to explain outcomes unique to family—such as marriage, the decision to have children, fertility, polygamy, time devoted to domestic production, and dowry payments using economic analysis.
The Easterlin paradox is a finding in happiness economics formulated in 1974 by Richard Easterlin, then professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania, and the first economist to study happiness data. The paradox states that at a point in time happiness varies directly with income both among and within nations, but over time happiness does not trend upward as income continues to grow. It is the contradiction between the point-of-time and time series findings that is the root of the paradox. Various theories have been advanced to explain the Paradox, but the Paradox itself is solely an empirical generalization. The existence of the paradox has been strongly disputed by other researchers.
Richard Ainley Easterlin is a professor of economics at the University of Southern California. He is best known for the economic theory named after him, the Easterlin paradox. Another contribution of him is the Easterlin hypothesis about long waves of baby booms and busts.
A two-child policy is a government-imposed limit of two children allowed per family or the payment of government subsidies only to the first two children.
Generation Alpha is the demographic cohort succeeding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 2010s as the starting birth years. Named after the first letter in the Greek alphabet, Generation Alpha is the first to be born entirely in the 21st century. Most members of Generation Alpha are the children of Millennials.
References
- ↑ Richard A. Easterlin. 1961. “The American Baby Boom in Historical Perspective.” American Economic Review 51 (5): pp. 869–911.
- ↑ Richard A. Easterlin. 1975. Studies in Family Planning, 6 (3): pp. 54-63.
- ↑ Matthias Doepke, Moshe Hazan, and Yishay D. Maoz, 2015. "The Baby Boom and World War II: A Macroeconomic Analysis," Review of Economic Studies, vol. 82(3), pp. 1031-1073.
- ↑ Matthew J. Hill, Easterlin revisited: Relative income and the baby boom, Explorations in Economic History, Volume 56, April 2015, Pages 71-85.
- ↑ Diane J. Macunovich. 1998. "Fertility and the Easterlin hypothesis: An assessment of the literature," Journal of Population Economics vol 11, pp.1–59.
- ↑ Easterlin RA. 1979. What will 1984 be like? Socioeconomic implications of recent twists in age structure Demography, 15: 397-432. PMID 738471 DOI: 10.2307/2061197