baby bust

1. a period of sharp decrease in the birthrate, as that in the U.S. after 1965.

Other Words From

• baby buster noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of baby bust¹

1970–75, Americanism

Example Sentences

Despite decades of declining birth rates and years of hand-wringing over a pandemic baby bust, there are now more than 2 billion alpha children worldwide — more than quarter of the population of the planet — and some 6 million in California alone.

From Los Angeles Times

Instead, the opposite happened: a baby bust.

From Salon

“The working-age population has flatlined and will soon begin falling,” said Mr. Carney, the author of an upcoming book on the “baby bust” and parenting.

From Washington Times

Instead the opposite happened: a baby bust.

From Scientific American

U.S. births ticked up about 51,000 between 2020 and 2021; as The Post’s Catherine Rampell has reported, pandemic-related government benefits and work-from-home opportunities helped confound expectations that the sharp recession would cause a baby bust.

From Washington Post