<P> The end of World War II brought a baby boom to many countries, especially Western ones . There is some disagreement as to the precise beginning and ending dates of the post-war baby boom, but it is most often agreed to have begun in the years immediately after the war, though some place it earlier at the increase of births in 1941 - 1943 . The boom started to decline as birth rates in the United States started to decline in 1958, though the boom would only grind to a halt 3 years later in 1961, 20 years after it began . </P> <P> In countries that had suffered heavy war damage, displacement of people and post-war economic hardship, such as Germany and neighboring Poland, the boom began some years later . </P>

When did the fertility rate peak in the united states