The number of live births in 1946 jumped from 222,721 in January to 339,499 in October in the United States. There were 32 million babies born by the end of the 1940s, compared with 24 million in the 1930s. The number of births annually surpassed four million in 1954, and it did not decline below that figure until 1965, by which time four out of ten Americans were under the age of 20. Couples who couldn’t afford families during the Great Depression made up for a lost time in the post-war years. The mood was now more optimistic. Unemployment ended, and the economy flourished. Veterans returned home and had to reintegrate into society.
Here are some fascinating vintage photos from Blueberry Paula of an Arizona family from 1950 to 1955.
