Busters and Boomlets

Who Are All Those Kids?

America is feeling the effects of the baby buster or "X" generation The "X" was (popularized by author Douglas Coupland, who took it from Paul Fussell's 1983 book, Class), those born from 1964 0r 1965 to 1980, though some sources give the cutoff date as 1975.

They're called "busters" due to a decline in the U.S. birth rate during this period. There were about 43-46 million people born in the U.S. during the "bust" years; adding immigrants and subtracting deaths, it's estimated that there are now 41 million still alive today.

These 41 million members are an important consumer buying group, representing $125 billion in spending power.

They're 20% of the U.S. population and consist of the following ethnic makeup: 70% White, 13% Black, 12% Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 1% American Indian.

Busters show steadily increasing rates of illegitimacy, child poverty, and single-parent upbringing, because during the "bust" years, all demographic groups joined in the fertility plunge, except one-unmarried women with low incomes.

This generation was raised on TV and personal computers, and are the first generation of American children to be raised in predominantly white-collar households.

This is the first child generation to be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) in any significant numbers.

Busters are the first generation to have a majority of its immigrants come from outside Europe.

They have encountered harsher economic conditions upon completing school then any other generation born since World War I.

Busters came of age amid skyrocketing houusing costs . They're on pace to become the most heavily-taxed American generation ever.

Busters are more likely to remain single longer than any prior generation.

Upon the Buster reaching young adulthood, the era of massive cutbacks in social "safety net" programs began.

Buster males in the late 1980s popularized the shortest men's hair styles of the twentieth century. In the mid-1990s, many just shaved their head for the bald look.

Busters are the fattest generation in U.S. history.

A large number of Busters were killed in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.