<P> Many Americans believed that lack of post-war government spending would send the United States back into depression . However, consumer demand fueled economic growth . The baby boom triggered a housing boom, a consumption boom and a boom in the labor force . Between 1950 and 1960, the nation's real GDP rose almost 50%, from $2.2 trillion to $3.1 trillion (in 2009 dollars). The middle class grew and the majority of America's labor force held white - collar jobs . This increase led to urbanization and increased the demand for ownership of cars and other 1950s and 1960s inventions . </P> <P> Marriage rates rose sharply in the 1940s and reached all - time highs . After World War II, Americans began to marry at a younger age: the average age of a person at their first marriage dropped to 22.5 years for males and 20.1 for females, down from 24.3 for males and 21.5 for females in 1940 . Getting married immediately after high school was becoming commonplace and women were increasingly under tremendous pressure to marry by the age of 20 . The stereotype developed that women were going to college to earn their M.R.S. (Mrs .) degree . </P> <P> Family size increased sharply throughout the baby boom: the average woman bore 3.09 children in 1950 which increased to 3.65 children per family in 1960; the peak was in 1957, when the figure stood at 3.77 . Most women became pregnant with their first child within seven months of their wedding; between 1940 and 1960, the number of families with three children doubled and the number of families having a fourth child quadrupled . </P> <P> In the United States more babies were born during the seven years after 1948 than in the previous 30, causing a shortage of teenage babysitters . Madison, New Jersey, for example, only had 50 high - school girls to babysit for a town of 8,000, and any sitter could have had two sitting jobs at once if desired . $5 of the $7 that a California couple spent to go to the movies in 1950 went to the babysitter . </P>

When did the us reach its peak tfr