Which years were the "Baby Boomer" years exactly?

That’s a question I found myself asking a while ago, after realising myself to be one also. The term is used to describe people born roughly between the years you mention – 1965 being the change point. A generation’s worth of birth, in the ‘boom years’ following WW2. I was surprised, having first found the definition in a British article in Psychologies Magazine, link here. This is a populist, psychobabbly sort of article, but it does define in an accessible way.

I was fairly surprised to find all this, realising that it does explain some interesting social cycles, even the one we are now in. I’m a ‘boomer’, born in 1959. The ‘cycle of archetypes’ mentioned makes sense to me. We are in a period now which closely echoes the early part of the 20th Century, with depression, decadence, political unrest. My personal hope is that the relatively romantic, optimistic wisdom gleaned by us Boomers will be enough to stave off major international violence. If we use Strauss and Howe’s definitions*, or see the cycles about to repeat, then all Hell is going to break loose in the next 20 years.

*Book: The Fourth Turning: an American Prophecy
# ISBN-10: 0767900464
# ISBN-13: 978–0767900461

@Hypocrisy_Central, I was born in 1965 and I consider myself a boomer and this is why. I am the youngest of eight children, so I am a late arrival to the parents of that generation, but I think that can work in the opposite direction as well. Were you born to very young parents? See my point.

Yes, those are the years. The peak year for births was 1955, the year I was born. But just as in families, it is the older ones, born 1946 to 1950 that get all the attention. As they turn 65 this year, the oldest ones lead to headlines “the Baby Boomers are retiring”, but most of us will be working for quite a while.

I was a pre-baby boomer(1943) and my wife is the real deal(1946). I asked her back in 1965 how she would like to marry an old boomer and she said “yes”.

We have boomed our way right into three generations and still going strong.

The figures you have quoted are what I have seen. In reality, I think the boundaries are somewhat fluid. I was born in 1964, which technically makes me one, but my wife was born in 1966, which makes her an “X”. I don’t feel like we are in different generations!!

1946 to 1961 was always used as the official time. Now people are extending it into the mid 60’s and i think by that time the birthrate had dropped considerably.

England’s birthrate a couple of years ago surpassed our highest birthrate during 1957.
They are having another babyboom. I suspect we are on the cusp of one too.