What was the post-war baby boom in Canada?

The post-war baby boom was a sharp increase in Canadian birth rates from 1946 to about 1965 in which about 8.6 million babies were born. Birth rates peaked at 28.5 births per 1,000 population in 1957, the highest annual rate of the 20th century. The boom transformed Canadian education, housing, suburbanisation, and consumer culture, and produced a demographic cohort (the Baby Boomers) that has shaped Canadian politics and culture ever since. Canada's overall population grew from about 12 million in 1945 to about 20 million by 1965, with about half of the growth coming from natural increase and the rest from immigration.

Several factors produced the boom. Returning veterans started families that had been delayed by the Depression and the Second World War. The post-war economy provided steady employment and rising wages. Canadian government policies supported family formation, including the federal Family Allowance Act of 1944 (the Baby Bonus), the Veterans Land Act and Veterans Charter, and low-interest housing finance through the National Housing Act and Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (founded 1946, renamed Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 1979). Marriage age declined and family sizes increased modestly.

The baby boom drove suburbanisation. Don Mills (Toronto's first complete planned suburb, 1953), Wildwood (Winnipeg, 1947), Frontenac (St. Catharines, 1948), and other developments demonstrated the new suburban model. Subdivisions with single-family detached homes, attached garages, and curving streets replaced the rectilinear street grid. Major Canadian cities saw their populations decentralise as families moved to new suburbs and downtowns lost residential population. Highway construction (including the Trans-Canada Highway and metropolitan expressways like Toronto's Don Valley Parkway, opened 1961, and Highway 401, completed 1956) supported suburban growth. Television, the family car (auto ownership rose from 25 per cent of Canadian households in 1941 to 65 per cent in 1961), and shopping centres became the visible symbols of the new suburban Canada.

The boom strained Canadian education, with school enrolments rising from about 2 million in 1946 to about 5 million by 1965. Provincial governments built thousands of new elementary and secondary schools. Universities grew rapidly: the federal Massey Commission of 1949 to 1951 led to federal grants for university expansion. Universities including the University of Calgary (1966), Trent University (1964), Brock University (1964), Lakehead University (1965), the University of Lethbridge (1967), and the University of Regina (1974) were founded during this period. The boomer cohort entered the labour force in the late 1960s and 1970s, peaked their economic productivity in the 1980s and 1990s, and began retirement around 2010 to 2030. The aging of the boomers is now a defining demographic challenge for Canadian health care, pensions, and housing markets.