Generations

Sometimes, as we work toward larger goals in our analysis projects, we find ourselves dealing with data that can be pretty neat in and of itself. Today, we're presenting some of that data in our chart below, which provides the number of registered births in the United States from 1909 through the most recently finalized data for 2004. Because we thought it might be fun, we've segmented the chart according to commonly accepted generation definitions:

The numbers behind the chart above are taken from two different reports from the bean-counters at the U.S. National Center for Health Care Statistics: U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, Table 1, Live Births, Birth Rates, and Fertility Rates, by Race; United States, 1909-2000 and Births: Final Data for 2004, tables E, 1, 18, 32.

Adding Them Up

Our table below provides the following data for each of the indicated generations: the total number of registered births, the peak number of births (and year), the low number of births (and year) and finally, the average number of births in each of the generations:

Highlights of US Registered Birth Data, 1909-2004
Generation (Years)	Registered Births	Peak Births (Year)	Low Births (Year)	Average Births
G.I. Generation (1909-1924)	46,316,000	3,055,000 (1921)	2,718,000 (1909)	2,894,750
Silent Generation (1925-1945)	55,332,000	3,104,000 (1943)	2,307,000 (1933)	2,634,857
Baby Boomer (1946-1964)	75,863,047	4,300,000 (1957)	3,411,000 (1946)	3,992,792
Generation X (1965-1981)	58,539,872	3,760,358 (1965)	3,136,965 (1973)	3,443,522
Generation Y (1982-1999)	70,125,668	4,158,212 (1990)	3,638,933 (1983)	3,895,870
Generation ??? (2000-2004+)	20,308,472	4,112,052 (2004)	4,021,726 (2002)	4,061,695

Looks to us like the next generation could put the baby boomers to shame!