THE BABY BOOM CONTINUED THROUGH THE DECADE OF THE 1950’S, PRODUC...

1945. The baby boom continued through the decade of the 1950’s, producing a population increase of nearlyfifteen percent in the five years from 1951 to 1956. This rate of increase had been exceeded only once beforesettled. Undoubtedly, the good economic condition of the 1950’s supported a growth in the population, but theexpansion also derived from a trend toward earlier marriages and an increase in the average size of families.In 1957 the Canadian birth rate stood at 28 per thousand, one of the highest in the world.After the peak year of 1957, the birth rate in Canada began to decline. It continued falling until in 1966it stood at the lowest level in 25 years. Partly this decline reflected the low level of births during the depressionand the war, but it was also caused by changes in Canadian society. Young people were staying at schoollonger; more women were working; young married couples were buying automobiles or houses before startingfamilies; rising living standards were cutting down the size of families.It appeared that Canada was once more falling in step with the trend toward smaller families that hadoccurred all through the Western world since the time of the Industrial Revolution.Although the growth in Canada’s population had slowed down by 1966 ( the increase in the first half ofthe 1960’s was only nine percent), another large population wave was coming over the horizon. It would becomposed of the children who were born during the period of the high birth rate prior to 1957.