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{{Short description|Cohort born from 1928 to 1945}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{for|the album|The Silent Generation (album){{!}}''The Silent Generation'' (album)}}
{{Globalize|date=July 2021|article|US}}
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The '''Silent Generation''', also known as the '''Traditionalist Generation''', is the Western [[demography|demographic]] [[Cohort (statistics)|cohort]] following the [[Greatest Generation]] and preceding the [[baby boomers]]. The [[generation]] is generally defined as people born from 1928 to 1945.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/5618238/democrats-age/ |title=Is It Time to 'Pass the Torch?' The Generational Dilemma of the 2020 Democratic Primary |magazine=Time |access-date=December 22, 2019 |date=July 30, 2019 |archive-date=December 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222113500/https://time.com/5618238/democrats-age/ |url-status=live }}</ref> By this definition and [[United States Census|U.S. Census]] data, there were 23 million Silents in the United States {{asof|2019|lc=y|post=.}}<ref name="2020Overtake">{{cite web |last1=Fry |first1=Richard |title=Millennials overtake Baby Boomers as America's largest generation |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/28/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers-as-americas-largest-generation/ |publisher=[[Pew Research Center]] |access-date=June 8, 2020 |date=April 28, 2020 |archive-date=April 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200428233813/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/28/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers-as-americas-largest-generation/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the United States, the [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s and [[World War II]] in the early-to-mid 1940s caused people to have fewer children and as a result, the generation is comparatively small.<ref name="forbes">{{cite news |last=Howe |first=Neil |date=July 13, 2014 |title=The Silent Generation, 'The Lucky Few' (Part 3 of 7) |no-pp=y |work=[[Forbes]] |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/08/13/the-silent-generation-the-lucky-few-part-3-of-7/ |access-date=October 21, 2014 |archive-date=September 23, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923194131/http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/08/13/the-silent-generation-the-lucky-few-part-3-of-7/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It includes most of those who fought during the [[Korean War]]. Upon coming of age in the [[History of the United States (1945–1964)|postwar era]], Silents were sometimes characterized as trending towards conformity and traditionalism, as well as comprising the "[[silent majority]]".<ref>{{cite web |last=McLaughlin |first=Dan |date=February 16, 2016 |title=Closing The Book on the Silent Generation |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/silent-generation-it-over/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323231419/https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/silent-generation-it-over/ |archive-date=March 23, 2022 |access-date=April 23, 2018 |work=[[National Review]]}}</ref> However, they have also been noted as forming the leadership of the [[civil rights movement]] and the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|1960s counterculture]], and creating the [[rock and roll]] music of the 1950s and 1960s.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-misconception-about-baby-boomers-and-the-sixties |title=The Misconception About Baby Boomers and the Sixties |last=Menand |first=Louis |date=August 18, 2019 |magazine=[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]] |access-date=April 21, 2021 |archive-date=April 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419101400/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-misconception-about-baby-boomers-and-the-sixties |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the United Kingdom, the Silent Generation was also born during a period of relatively low birthrates for similar reasons to the United States and was quite traditional upon coming of age. They lived through times of prosperity as young adults, economic upheaval in middle age, and relative comfort in later life. The [[Sixtiers]] is a similar age group in the Soviet Union whose upbringings were also heavily influenced by the troubles of the mid-20th century. The term "the builders" has been used to describe a similar cohort in Australia.

==Terminology==
''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine first used the term "Silent Generation" in a November 5, 1951, article titled "The Younger Generation", although the term appears to precede the publication:<ref name="time.com">{{cite magazine |date=November 5, 1951 |title=People: THE YOUNGER GENERATION |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,856950,00.html |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=March 3, 2020 |archive-date=April 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415073957/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,856950,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{blockquote|text=The most startling fact about the younger generation is its silence. With some rare exceptions, youth is nowhere near the rostrum. By comparison with the Flaming Youth of their fathers & mothers, today's younger generation is a still, small flame. It does not issue manifestoes, make speeches or carry posters. It has been called the "Silent Generation."}}

The ''Time'' article used birth dates of 1923 to 1933 for the generation, but the term somehow migrated to the later years currently in use.<ref name="Menand-2021">{{cite magazine |last1=Menand |first1=Louis |date=October 11, 2021 |title=It's Time to Stop Talking About 'Generations' |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/its-time-to-stop-talking-about-generations |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=November 11, 2021 |archive-date=September 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902110411/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/its-time-to-stop-talking-about-generations |url-status=live }}</ref> A reason later proposed for this perceived silence is that as young adults during the [[McCarthyism|McCarthy Era]], many members of the Silent Generation felt it was unwise to speak out.<ref>Handbook to Life in America, Volume 8 Rodney P. Carlisle Infobase Publishing, 2009, p. 22</ref>

The term "Silent Generation" is also used to describe a similar age group in the UK but has been at times described as a reference to strict childhood discipline which taught children to be "seen but not heard."<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 18, 2019|title=From the silent generation to 'snowflakes': why you need friends of all ages|url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/oct/18/silent-generation-to-snowflakes-why-you-need-friends-all-ages|access-date=November 17, 2021|website=the Guardian|language=en|archive-date=October 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018065024/http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/oct/18/silent-generation-to-snowflakes-why-you-need-friends-all-ages|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Millennials, baby boomers or Gen Z: Which one are you and what does it mean?|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zf8j92p|access-date=November 17, 2021|website=BBC Bitesize|language=en-GB|archive-date=October 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191013093015/https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zf8j92p|url-status=live}}</ref> In Canada, it has been used with the same meaning as in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dangerfield |first=Katie |date=July 23, 2017 |title=From baby boomers to millennials: Which generation speaks to you? |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/3587440/generation-traits-millennials-baby-boomer-generation-x/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220404210018/https://globalnews.ca/news/3587440/generation-traits-millennials-baby-boomer-generation-x/ |archive-date=April 4, 2022 |access-date=November 18, 2021 |website=Global News |language=en-US }}</ref> The cohort is also known as the "Traditionalist Generation".<ref>{{cite book |first=Stephen | last=Fineman | title=Organising Age | location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 | isbn=978-0-19957-804-7 |page=45}}</ref>

==Dates and age range definitions==
The [[Pew Research Center]] uses 1928 to 1945 as birth years for this cohort. According to this definition, people of the Silent Generation are {{age|1945-12-31}} to {{age|1928-01-01}} years old in {{YEAR}}.<ref>{{cite news|date=March 1, 2018|title=Generations and Age|publisher=Pew Research|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/topics/generations-and-age/|access-date=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180331061858/https://www.pewresearch.org/topics/generations-and-age/|archive-date=March 31, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/methodology/demographic-research/definitions/|title=Definitions – Pew Research Center|website=www.pewresearch.org|access-date=September 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216215337/http://www.pewresearch.org/methodology/demographic-research/definitions/|archive-date=February 16, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Intergenerational Centre of the [[Resolution Foundation]] has used 1926 to 1945, while the ''Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management'' uses the range 1925 to 1945. This generation had reached maturity as early as 1946 and as late as 1963, but the majority of Silents had come of age in the 1950s, which was followed by older [[Baby boomers|boomer]]s in the 1960s.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rahman |first1=Fahmida |last2=Tomlinson |first2=Daniel |date=February 2018 |title=Cross Countries: International comparisons of intergenerational trends |no-pp=y |work=Intergenerational Commission |publisher=Resolution Foundation |url=https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2018/02/IC-international.pdf |access-date=May 26, 2018 |archive-date=April 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417202626/http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2018/02/IC-international.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=bowmanmulvenon>{{cite book |first1=Sandra G. |last1=Bowman |first2=Sean W. |last2=Mulvenon |chapter=Effective Government of Generational Dynamics in the Workplace |editor-first=Victor C. X. |editor-last=Wang |title=Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management |publisher=IGI Global |location=Hershey, PA |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-52251-050-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KL_FDQAAQBAJ |page=835 |access-date=November 3, 2022 |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150643/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_Strategic_Leadership_and/KL_FDQAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Authors [[Strauss–Howe generational theory|William Strauss and Neil Howe]] use 1925 to 1942.<ref name="forbes" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Strauss|first1=William|title=The Fourth Turning|date=2009|publisher=Three Rivers Press|asin=B001RKFU4I}}</ref> People born in the later years of World War II who were too young to have any direct recollections of the conflict are sometimes considered to be culturally, if not demographically, baby boomers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howe |first=Neil |date=August 20, 2014 |title=The Boom Generation, "What a Long Strange Trip" (Part 4 of 7) |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/08/20/the-boom-generation-what-a-long-strange-trip-part-4-of-7/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220404210359/https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/08/20/the-boom-generation-what-a-long-strange-trip-part-4-of-7/?sh=22e46b8e6197 |archive-date=April 4, 2022 |access-date=November 19, 2021 |website=Forbes |language=en }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Strauss |first1=William |title=Generations the history of America's future, 1584 to 2069 |last2=Howe |first2=Neil |date=1992 |publisher=Quill |isbn=978-0-688-11912-6 |language=en-US |oclc=1072494545}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Owram|first=Doug|date=December 31, 1997|title=Born at the Right Time|doi=10.3138/9781442657106|isbn=978-1-4426-5710-6}}</ref>

==Characteristics==

===Australia===
Australia's McCrindle Research uses the name "Builders" to describe the Australian members of this generation, born between 1925 and 1945, and coming of age to become the generation "who literally and metaphorically built [the] nation after the austerity years post-Depression and World War II".<ref>[http://mccrindle.com.au/resources/whitepapers/McCrindle-Research_ABC-01_Generations-Defined_Mark-McCrindle.pdf Generations Defined]. Mark McCrindle {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616232732/http://mccrindle.com.au/resources/whitepapers/McCrindle-Research_ABC-01_Generations-Defined_Mark-McCrindle.pdf |date=June 16, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=McCrindle|first1=Mark|title=The ABC of XYZ Understanding the Global Generations|url=http://www.saspa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-ABC-of-XYZ_Chapter-1.pdf|access-date=May 25, 2018|publisher=McCrindle Research|archive-date=June 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619132811/http://www.saspa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-ABC-of-XYZ_Chapter-1.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://mccrindle.com.au/insights/blog/generations-defined-50-years-change-5-generations-resource/ |title=Generations defined: 50 years of change over 5 generations |publisher=McCrindle Research |access-date=August 30, 2018 |date=August 22, 2012 |archive-date=December 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222110751/https://mccrindle.com.au/insights/blog/generations-defined-50-years-change-5-generations-resource/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Soviet Union===
{{main|Sixtiers}}
The Silent Generation in the Soviet Union is similar to [[Sixtiers]]. These people were born into [[Stalinism]], raised during [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union| collectivization]], and were witnesses of the [[Holodomor]]. So even though there was no [[Great Depression]] in the Soviet Union, they still experienced a lack of resources and food as children. In the 1930s and 1940s many of them lost their parents or close relatives during [[Stalinist repressions (disambiguation)|Stalinist repressions]]<!--intentional link to DAB page--> and later during [[Eastern Front (World War II)|battles and German occupation in WWII]]. Sometimes this generation is called the "Children of [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|XX-th Congress]]".

===United Kingdom===
====Childhood and youth====
[[File:A group of smiling evacuees from Rotherhithe in Kent with gas mask boxes hold hands on a walk in Reading during 1940. D824.jpg|thumb|Child evacuees in [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]] carrying [[gas mask]]s which were issued to British civilians in 1938 during the [[Munich Crisis]] (1940)<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 9, 2014 |title=On this day: Gas masks issued to British civilians |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/day-gas-masks-issued-british-civilians-1532040 |website=[[The Scotsman]] |access-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114020607/https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/day-gas-masks-issued-british-civilians-1532040 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
There was a slump in birth rates in the UK between the two major baby booms following each [[world war]]. This roughly correlated with the economic downturn in the 1930s and World War II.<ref>{{Cite web|date=March 27, 2020|title=Our population – Where are we? How did we get here? Where are we going?|url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/ourpopulationwherearewehowdidwegetherewherearewegoing/2020-03-27#births-and-deaths-since-1901|access-date=November 18, 2021|website=Office for National Statistics|archive-date=November 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118184424/https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/ourpopulationwherearewehowdidwegetherewherearewegoing/2020-03-27#births-and-deaths-since-1901|url-status=live}}</ref> The era of the Great Depression was a time of deprivation for many children, unemployment was high and slum housing was common. However, education was compulsory from the age of five to fourteen years old. Gaining a place at grammar school was a way for young people whose families could not afford them to be privately educated to gain full access to secondary schooling. In a time before widespread car use, children commonly played outside in the street and further afield without adult supervision. Toys of this era were quite simple but examples included dolls, model aeroplanes, and trains. Other popular activities included reading [[British comics|comics]], playing board games, going to the cinema, and joining children's organizations such as the [[Scouting|scouts]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Childhood in the 1920s and 1930s|url=https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Childhood-In-The-1920s-And-1930s/|access-date=November 18, 2021|website=Historic UK|language=en-GB|archive-date=November 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118184424/https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Childhood-In-The-1920s-And-1930s/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was estimated that more than 85% of British households owned a wireless (radio) by 1939.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Scott|first=Peter|title=The Market Makers: Creating Mass Markets for Consumer Durables in Inter-war Britain|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2017|pages=134}}</ref>

The Second World War impacted the lives of children in various ways. Significant numbers of schoolchildren were [[Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II|evacuated without their parents]] to the countryside to avoid the threat of bombing throughout the war years.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Evacuated Children Of The Second World War|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-evacuated-children-of-the-second-world-war|access-date=November 18, 2021|website=Imperial War Museums|language=en|archive-date=November 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118184422/https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-evacuated-children-of-the-second-world-war|url-status=live}}</ref> The quality of education fell everywhere but particularly in urban areas for various reasons, including a shortage of teachers and supplies, the distress pupils suffered from air raids and the disruption caused by evacuations.<ref>Eric Hopkins,  "Elementary education in Birmingham during the Second World War." ''History of education'' 18#3 (1989): 243–255.</ref><ref>Emma Lautman, "Educating Children on the British Home Front, 1939–1945: Oral History, Memory and Personal Narratives." ''History of education researcher'' 95 (2015): 13–26.</ref><ref>Roy Lowe,  "Education in England during the Second World War." in Roy Lowe, ed., ''Education and the Second World War: studies in schooling and social change'' (1992) pp 4–16.</ref> The degree of supervision children received also fell as fathers left to fight and mothers joined the workforce.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Khatkar |first=Perminder |date=May 26, 2010 |title=What's it like to be a latchkey child? |language=en-GB |work=BBC Magazine |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8704827.stm |access-date=January 12, 2023 |archive-date=January 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112171956/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8704827.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=Carol |date=February 17, 2011 |title=BBC – History – British History in depth: Women Under Fire in World War Two |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwtwo/women_at_war_01.shtml#:~:text=In%20December%201941,%20the%20National%20Service%20Act%20(no,employed%20in%20essential%20work%20for%20the%20war%20effort. |access-date=January 12, 2023 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en-GB |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150630/https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwtwo/women_at_war_01.shtml#:~:text=In%20December%201941,%20the%20National%20Service%20Act%20(no,employed%20in%20essential%20work%20for%20the%20war%20effort. |url-status=live }}</ref> However, [[Rationing in the United Kingdom|rationing during World War II and the years after]] improved the health of the population overall with one study conducted in the early 2000s suggesting that a typical 1940s child ate a healthier diet than their counterpart at the start of the 21st century.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stormont|first=Brian|date=July 16, 2020|title=Healthy eating: What can we learn from wartime food rationing?|url=https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/food-drink/1442540/healthy-eating-what-can-we-learn-from-wartime-food-rationing/|access-date=November 18, 2021|newspaper=The Courier|language=en-GB|archive-date=November 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118185926/https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/food-drink/1442540/healthy-eating-what-can-we-learn-from-wartime-food-rationing/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Townsend|first=Mark|date=January 4, 2004|title=Study shows wartime rations were better for children|url=http://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/jan/04/observerspecialbritainsschools.medicineandhealth|access-date=November 18, 2021|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en|archive-date=November 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118191211/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/jan/04/observerspecialbritainsschools.medicineandhealth|url-status=live}}</ref> Following the Second World War, the school-leaving age was raised to 15 with every child being allocated to one of three types of school based on a [[Eleven-plus|test taken at the age of 11]] in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (selection between two types of school took place at age 12 in Scotland<ref name="Paterson2001pp566-9">L. Patterson, "Schools and schooling: 3. Mass education 1872–present", in M. Lynch, ed., ''The Oxford Companion to Scottish History'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), {{ISBN|0-19-211696-7}}, pp. 566–9.</ref>).<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Education Act of 1944|url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/school/overview/educationact1944/|access-date=November 18, 2021|website=www.parliament.uk|language=en|archive-date=November 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118184422/https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/school/overview/educationact1944/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=August 7, 2017 |title=The 1947 Education Act – a landmark in Northern Ireland's history |url=http://qpol.qub.ac.uk/1947-education-act/ |access-date=March 23, 2022 |website=Queen's Policy Engagement |language=en-GB |archive-date=August 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813222633/http://qpol.qub.ac.uk/1947-education-act/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:1950 - 60 Television and lamp (5980295871).jpg|thumb|Early television, an example of mid-20th century consumer goods|left]]
The years after the Second World War saw a continuation of difficult social conditions; there was a serious housing shortage and rationing was at times more restrictive than it had been during the war. The late 1940s saw substantial social reforms and changes to the structure of the British economy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Derek |date=March 14, 2001 |title=1945–51: Labour and the creation of the welfare state |url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education |access-date=January 13, 2023 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=January 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113090317/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="burnett">Burnett, ''A social history of housing: 1815–1985'' (1985) pp 278–330</ref> Economic conditions and living standards improved significantly during the 1950s and 60s.<ref name="BlackPemberton2017">{{cite book |last1=Black |first1=Lawrence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJkuDwAAQBAJ |title=An Affluent Society?: Britain's Post-War 'Golden Age' Revisited |last2=Pemberton |first2=Hugh |date=July 28, 2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-351-95917-9 |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114013316/https://books.google.com/books?id=CJkuDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Gurney |first=Peter |year=2005 |title=The Battle of the Consumer in Postwar Britain |journal=Journal of Modern History |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=956–987 |doi=10.1086/499831 |jstor=10.1086/499831 |s2cid=145257014}}</ref> Unemployment rested at roughly two percent during this period,{{sfn|Kynaston|2009}} much lower than it had been during the depression or would be later in the 20th century.<ref name="SlomanGarratt2015">{{cite book |last1=Sloman |first1=John |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=etWpBwAAQBAJ}|page=811}} |title=Economics |last2=Garratt |first2=Dean |author3=Alison Wride |date=January 6, 2015 |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |isbn=978-1-292-06484-0 |page=811}}</ref> Consumer goods such as televisions and household labour saving devices became increasingly common.{{sfn|Burnett|1986|p=302}} By the late 1950s, Britain was one of the most affluent societies anywhere in the world.<ref name="Hill1985">{{cite book |last=Hill |first=Charles Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jQyzQgAACAAJ |title=British Economic and Social History, 1700–1982 |publisher=E. Arnold |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-7131-7382-6 |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114013319/https://books.google.com/books?id=jQyzQgAACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1957, 52%  of the British population described themselves as "very happy" in comparison to 36% in 2005.<ref>{{cite news |last=Easton |first=Mark |date=May 2, 2006 |title=Britain's happiness in decline |publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/4771908.stm |url-status=live |access-date=March 12, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216012035/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/4771908.stm |archive-date=February 16, 2009}}</ref><ref name="Healey2002">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WzKIAgAAQBAJ |title=Britain's Economic Miracle: Myth Or Reality? |date=September 26, 2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-89226-6 |editor-last=Healey |editor-first=Nigel |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114013327/https://books.google.com/books?id=WzKIAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> That year, Prime Minister [[Harold Macmillan]] famously said:<ref>{{cite news |date=July 20, 1957 |title=1957: Britons 'have never had it so good' |publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3728000/3728225.stm |url-status=live |access-date=March 12, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107235938/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3728000/3728225.stm |archive-date=November 7, 2017}}</ref>

{{quote|Let us be frank about it: most of our people have never had it so good. Go round the country, go to the industrial towns, go to the farms and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime – nor indeed in the history of this country.}}The idea of the "teenager" as a distinctive phase of life associated with rebellion against adult authority and older generations social norms became increasingly prominent in public discourse during the 1940s and 50s.<ref>David F. Smith, "Delinquency and welfare in London: 1939–1949". ''The London Journal'' 38#1 (2013): 67–87.</ref><ref>Melanie Tebbutt, ''Making Youth: A History of Youth in Modern Britain'' (2016).{{page needed|date=May 2018}}</ref><ref>David Fowler, ''Youth culture in modern Britain, c. 1920-c. 1970: from ivory tower to global movement-a new history'' (2008).{{page needed|date=May 2018}}</ref><ref>Bill Osgerby, ''Youth in Britain since 1945'' (1998).{{page needed|date=May 2018}}</ref> Though in many ways those reaching maturity in the years after the Second World War were quite traditionally conservative in experience and attitudes. [[Conscription in the United Kingdom|National service]] ([[Conscription|military conscription]]) was reintroduced after the war and continued throughout the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What was National Service? {{!}} National Army Museum |url=https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/what-was-national-service |access-date=January 14, 2023 |website=www.nam.ac.uk |language=en |archive-date=June 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618025554/https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/what-was-national-service |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=National Service |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/yourcountry/overview/nationalservice/ |website=UK Parliament |access-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114095948/https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/yourcountry/overview/nationalservice/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Young people would often attend ballroom dances to socialise and find potential romantic partners.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jack |first=Ian |date=January 23, 2016 |title=Dance halls were the Tinder of their day |url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/23/dance-halls-were-the-tinder-of-their-day |access-date=January 14, 2023 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114095950/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/23/dance-halls-were-the-tinder-of-their-day |url-status=live }}</ref> The average age of first marriage in England and Wales fell reaching its lowest level in more than a hundred years by the late 1960s of 27.2 and 24.7 years for men and women respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marriages in England and Wales |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/marriagecohabitationandcivilpartnerships/bulletins/marriagesinenglandandwalesprovisional/2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419083033/https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/marriagecohabitationandcivilpartnerships/bulletins/marriagesinenglandandwalesprovisional/2016 |archive-date=April 19, 2020 |access-date=August 7, 2020 |website=www.ons.gov.uk |publisher=Office for National Statistics}}</ref> Cultural norms<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simonton |first=Deborah |title=Women in European Culture and Society: Gender, Skill, and Identity from 1700 |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-415-21308-0 |location=Abingdon, Oxon |pages=321–323}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Marriages in England and Wales |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/marriagecohabitationandcivilpartnerships/bulletins/marriagesinenglandandwalesprovisional/2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419083033/https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/marriagecohabitationandcivilpartnerships/bulletins/marriagesinenglandandwalesprovisional/2016 |archive-date=April 19, 2020 |access-date=August 7, 2020 |website=www.ons.gov.uk |publisher=Office for National Statistics}}</ref><ref>Phyllis Whiteman, ''Speaking as a Woman'' (1953) p 67</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=The Practical Home Handywoman: A Book of Basic Principles for the Self-Reliant Woman Dealing with All the Problems of Home-Making and Housekeeping |publisher=Odhams Press |year=1950 |location=London |pages=233}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gillis |first1=Stacy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLeSAgAAQBAJ |title=Feminism, Domesticity and Popular Culture |last2=Hollows |first2=Joanne |date=September 7, 2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-89426-9 |access-date=August 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820200620/https://books.google.com/books?id=aLeSAgAAQBAJ |archive-date=August 20, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> and government policy<ref name="Smith1990">{{cite book |last=Pugh |first=Martin |title=British feminism in the twentieth century |publisher=Elgar |year=1990 |isbn=978-1-85278-096-8 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Harold L. |page=158 |chapter=Domesticity and the Decline of Feminism 1930–1950 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UmoFAQAAIAAJ |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114013318/https://books.google.com/books?id=UmoFAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}.</ref><ref>Martin Pugh, "Domesticity and the Decline of Feminism 1930–1950". p 158"</ref><ref>Bruley, ''Women in Britain since 1900'' p 118</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Beaumont |first=Caitríona |date=January 2, 2017 |title=What Do Women Want? Housewives' Associations, Activism and Changing Representations of Women in the 1950s |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09612025.2015.1123029 |url-status=live |journal=Women's History Review |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=147–162 |doi=10.1080/09612025.2015.1123029 |issn=0961-2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213190119/http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09612025.2015.1123029 |archive-date=February 13, 2017 |access-date=August 8, 2020 |s2cid=148013595}}</ref> encouraged marriage and women to focus on their role as homemaker, wife and mother whilst their husband acted as the household's primary [[Breadwinner model|breadwinner]]. The treatment of those who did not meet society's expectations in their personal lives was often quite unsympathetic. Abortion<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=October 22, 2019 |title=What are the UK's laws on abortion? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/health-19856314 |access-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-date=December 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220160851/https://www.bbc.com/news/health-19856314 |url-status=live }}</ref> and homosexuality<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=A short history of LGBT rights in the UK |url=https://www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories/articles/a-short-history-of-lgbt-rights-in-the-uk |access-date=January 14, 2023 |website=British Library |archive-date=May 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180513185442/https://www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories/articles/a-short-history-of-lgbt-rights-in-the-uk |url-status=live }}</ref> were illegal whilst later investigations suggest that many women who gave birth out of wedlock had their babies forcibly removed from them.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC News Channel – If You Love Your Baby… The Story of Forced Adoptions |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000whlm |access-date=January 14, 2023 |website=BBC |language=en-GB |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114102645/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000whlm |url-status=live }}</ref> Laws were liberalised significantly in the late 1960s,<ref name="Thorpe64702001">{{cite book |last1=Thorpe |first1=Andrew |title=A History of the British Labour Party |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=0-333-92908-X |pages=145–165}}</ref> but change was slower in certain areas in Scotland and Northern Ireland.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

====Mid and later life====
Heavy industry had been troubled in the UK throughout the 1960s,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=High |first=Steven |date=November 2013 |title="The wounds of class": a historiographical reflection on the study of deindustrialization, 1973–2013 |journal=[[History Compass]] |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell|Wiley]] |volume=11 |issue=11 |pages=994–1007 |doi=10.1111/hic3.12099}}</ref> this combined with a [[1970s energy crisis|global energy crisis]] and influx of cheap goods from Asia led to rapid [[Deindustrialization|deindustrialisation]] by the mid 1970s. New jobs were either low wage or too high-skilled for those laid off.<ref>Tim Strangleman, James Rhodes, and Sherry Linkon, "Introduction to crumbling cultures: Deindustrialization, class, and memory". ''International Labor and Working-Class History'' 84 (2013): 7–22. [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0147547913000227 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131200038/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0147547913000227|date=January 31, 2017}}</ref><ref>Steven High, "' The Wounds of Class': A Historiographical Reflection on the Study of Deindustrialization, 1973–2013". History Compass 11.11 (2013): 994–1007</ref>{{sfn|Harrison|2009|p=295}} This situation led to significant political instability and industrial unrest causing a great deal of frustration and inconvenience to the general public.<ref name="Turner2009">{{cite book |last=Turner |first=Alwyn W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UK30AgAAQBAJ |title=Crisis? What Crisis?: Britain in the 1970s |date=March 19, 2009 |publisher=Aurum Press |isbn=978-1-84513-851-6 |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115031459/https://books.google.com/books?id=UK30AgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Beckett2009">{{cite book |last=Beckett |first=Andy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-NURERF4hb8C |title=When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies |date=May 7, 2009 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-25226-8 |access-date=January 15, 2023 |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150629/https://books.google.com/books?id=-NURERF4hb8C |url-status=live }}</ref> Meanwhile, another set of problems was developing in Northern Ireland where politics had become increasingly tense and divided during the 1960s. This developed into a sectarian conflict with the British Army involved known as [[The Troubles]] which continued over several decades.<ref name="Dixon2008">{{cite book |last=Dixon |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IwQdBQAAQBAJ |title=Northern Ireland: The Politics of War and Peace |date=September 26, 2008 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-05424-1 |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=August 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816043314/https://books.google.com/books?id=IwQdBQAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Farrington2006">{{cite book |last=Farrington |first=C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s17NCwAAQBAJ |title=Ulster Unionism and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland |date=February 28, 2006 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-80072-4 |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115031458/https://books.google.com/books?id=s17NCwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> This conflict caused more than 3,500 deaths.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/tables/Status_Summary.html |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk |access-date=January 15, 2023 |archive-date=November 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118204006/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/tables/Status_Summary.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1979, [[Margaret Thatcher]] became prime minister and brought about the end to some aspects of the [[Post-war consensus]] on economic policy.<ref>Rudolf Klein,  "Why Britain's conservatives support a socialist health care system." ''Health Affairs'' 4#1 (1985): 41–58. [http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/4/1/41.full.pdf online]</ref> For instance, her government created the [[Right to Buy|right-to-buy]] scheme which allowed renters to buy up their [[Council house|council homes]] at a reduced prices.<ref name="guardian">{{cite news |last1=Beckett |first1=Andy |date=August 26, 2015 |title=The right to buy: the housing crisis that Thatcher built |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/26/right-to-buy-margaret-thatcher-david-cameron-housing-crisis |access-date=June 27, 2017 |archive-date=July 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706155821/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/26/right-to-buy-margaret-thatcher-david-cameron-housing-crisis |url-status=live }}</ref> Middle aged people were one of the social groups which particularly benefited from this policy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Beckett |first=Andy |date=August 26, 2015 |title=The right to buy: the housing crisis that Thatcher built |url=http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/26/right-to-buy-margaret-thatcher-david-cameron-housing-crisis |access-date=January 15, 2023 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=February 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203081313/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/26/right-to-buy-margaret-thatcher-david-cameron-housing-crisis |url-status=live }}</ref> Her policies have been described as giving millions of people direct ownership of [[Capitalism|capital]] through [[Shareholders in the United Kingdom|share]] or house ownership but have also been associated with high unemployment, rising poverty and social unrest.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 21, 2010 |title=Obituary: Margaret Thatcher |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-10364876 |access-date=January 15, 2023 |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117125558/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-10364876 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rogers |first=Simon |date=April 8, 2013 |title=15 ways that Britain changed under Margaret Thatcher |url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/datablog/2013/apr/08/britain-changed-margaret-thatcher-charts |access-date=January 15, 2023 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=January 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115131515/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/datablog/2013/apr/08/britain-changed-margaret-thatcher-charts |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Pensioner's houses, Omagh - geograph.org.uk - 2124666.jpg|thumb|Houses adapted for elderly people in [[Omagh]], [[Northern Ireland]] (2010)]]
For several decades prior to 2010, women received the [[State Pension (United Kingdom)|State Pension]] from the age of 60 and men from the age of 65.<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 3, 2019 |title=Waspi campaign: The fight against changes to women's state pension age |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49919029 |access-date=January 18, 2023 |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150631/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49919029 |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2019 report stated that Pensioner [[Poverty in the United Kingdom|Poverty in the UK]] had increased rapidly during the 1970s and the 1980s but fell in the 1990s and early 21st century. According to the report 20% of the silent generation, which it described as individuals born from 1926 to 1945, had lived in poverty at the age of 70 in comparison to 45% of the Greatest Generation and 15% of Baby Boomers at similar ages. The report attributed the change to more [[private pension]]s, increased home ownership and government policy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 22, 2019 |title=Pensioner poverty rates have fallen by two-thirds since 1980s peak • Resolution Foundation |url=https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releases/pensioner-poverty-rates-have-fallen-by-two-thirds-since-1980s-peak/ |access-date=January 18, 2023 |website=Resolution Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150635/https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releases/pensioner-poverty-rates-have-fallen-by-two-thirds-since-1980s-peak/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Commentators suggested that older people were somewhat insulated from the effects of the [[United Kingdom government austerity programme|austerity programme]] in the 2010s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stewart |first=Heather |date=March 11, 2015 |title=Pensioners escaped effects of austerity while young suffered most, says report |url=http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/mar/11/pensioners-escaped-effects-austerity-young-suffered-most-resolution |access-date=January 18, 2023 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150635/https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/mar/11/pensioners-escaped-effects-austerity-young-suffered-most-resolution |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=August 11, 2022 |title=Rising interest rates will split the Conservatives' electoral coalition |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/08/11/rising-interest-rates-will-split-the-conservatives-electoral-coalition |url-status=live |access-date=January 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150631/https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/08/11/rising-interest-rates-will-split-the-conservatives-electoral-coalition |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |issn=0013-0613 |quote=Since 2010 a combination of tight fiscal policy (for everyone bar pensioners) and loose monetary policy has created an effective electoral coalition. Older voters, who overwhelmingly vote Conservative, avoided the worst of austerity. Pensioners were protected by a “triple-lock” rule that kept the state pension rising inexorably, regardless of the wider economy or the state of government finances. The National Health Service, the public service that older people use most, was ring-fenced.}}</ref> Though pensioner poverty was rising slightly by the mid to late 2010s and early 2020s, especially among women.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 20, 2022 |title=Pensioner poverty rates |url=https://www.jrf.org.uk/data/pensioner-poverty-rates |access-date=January 18, 2023 |website=JRF |language=en |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150652/https://www.jrf.org.uk/data/pensioner-poverty-rates |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Youssef |first=Anna |date=March 24, 2022 |title=Why is pensioner poverty on the rise? |url=https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2022-03-24/why-is-pensioner-poverty-on-the-rise |access-date=January 18, 2023 |website=ITV News |language=en}}</ref> The average life expectancy was around 80 years old, a few years older for women than men, in the late 2000s and 2010s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National life tables – life expectancy in the UK – Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2018to2020 |access-date=January 18, 2023 |website=www.ons.gov.uk |archive-date=February 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203081314/https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2018to2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====General trends====
An analysis of [[British Election Study]] surveys for the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964]] to [[2019 United Kingdom general election|2019]] general elections suggested that the Silent Generation as a cohort became more likely to vote for the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] as they grew older. The results suggested that at 35 years old, people born from 1928 to 1945 were about 5 percentage points less likely to vote Conservative than the national average, but that by the time they were 70 years old, they were about ten percentage points more likely to do so than the national average. They were, however, by the end of the time period studied, less likely to vote for the Conservatives than the next youngest age group, baby boomers. An article on the analysis commented that it is conventional wisdom that people become more conservative as they get older but that isn't true of all the age groups the analysis covered and environmental factors are also important in influencing the development of voter behavior.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Burn-Murdoch |first=John |date=December 30, 2022 |title=Millennials are shattering the oldest rule in politics |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/c361e372-769e-45cd-a063-f5c0a7767cf4 |access-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-date=January 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115233549/https://www.ft.com/content/c361e372-769e-45cd-a063-f5c0a7767cf4 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===United States===
====As children and adolescents====
[[File:Girl listening to radio.gif|thumb|upright=0.8|A girl listening to [[History of radio|vacuum-tube radio]] during the [[Great Depression]]]]
As a cultural narrative, the Silent Generation are described as children of the [[Great Depression]] whose parents, having revelled in the highs of the [[Roaring Twenties]], now faced great economic hardship and struggled to provide for their families. Before reaching their teens, they shared with their parents the horrors of [[World War II]] but through children's eyes. Many lost their fathers or older siblings who were killed in the war. They saw the fall of [[Nazism]] and the catastrophic devastation made capable of the [[nuclear bomb]]. When the Silent Generation began coming of age after World War II, they were faced with a devastated social order within which they would spend their early adulthood and a new enemy in [[Communism]] via the betrayal of post-war agreements and rise of the [[Soviet Union]]. Unlike the previous generation who had fought for "changing the system," the Silent Generation was about "working within the system." They did this by keeping their heads down and working hard, thus earning themselves the "silent" label. Their attitudes leaned toward not being risk-takers and playing it safe. ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'' magazine's story on the College Class of '49 was subtitled "Taking No Chances".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Class of '49 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_fortune_1949-06_39_6/page/82/mode/2up?view=theater |website=Fortune| date=June 1949 }}</ref> This generation was also heavily influenced by the transformations brought about by the [[Golden Age of Radio]], the rise of trade unions, the development of [[transatlantic flight]] and the discovery of [[penicillin]] during their formative years.<ref name=bowmanmulvenon/>

====In adulthood====
[[File:Joe Biden presidential portrait.jpg|thumb| 46th [[United States|U.S.]] president [[Joe Biden]] (2021–2025<!-- 2025 -->) is a member of the Silent Generation.]]
From their childhood experiences during the Depression and the example of frugality set by their parents, Silents tended to be thrifty and even miserly, preferring to maximize a product's lifespan, i.e., "get their money's worth." This led some members of the Silent Generation to develop [[hoarding]] behaviors in the guise of "not being wasteful."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kane |first=Sally |date=April 4, 2022 |title=Common Workplace Characteristics of the Traditionalist Generation |url=https://www.thebalancecareers.com/workplace-characteristics-silent-generation-2164692 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220404210709/https://www.thebalancecareers.com/workplace-characteristics-silent-generation-2164692 |archive-date=April 4, 2022 |access-date=April 4, 2022 |website=The Balance Careers }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Abramson |first=Alexis |author-link=Alexis Abramson |date=July 3, 2018 |title=The Silent Generation Characteristics and Facts You Need to Know |url=https://www.alexisabramson.com/the-silent-generation-characteristics-and-facts-you-need-to-know/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230084213/https://www.alexisabramson.com/the-silent-generation-characteristics-and-facts-you-need-to-know/ |archive-date=December 30, 2019 |access-date=April 4, 2022 |website=Dr.Alexis}}</ref>

As with their own parents, Silents tended to marry and have children young. American Silents are noted as being the youngest of all American generations in the age of marriage and parenthood. As young parents, the older members of this generation primarily produced the [[Generation Jones|later]] [[Baby Boomers]], while younger members of the generation and older members who held off raising a family until later in life gave birth to [[Generation X]]. Whereas divorce in the eyes of the previous generation was considered aberrant behavior, the Silents were the generation that reformed marriage laws to allow for divorce and lessen the stigma. This led to a historically unprecedented wave of divorces among Silent Generation couples in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://rocketswag.com/elderly/generation/silent-generation/Divorce-In-The-Silent-Generation.html|title=Divorce In The Silent Generation|website=rocketswag|access-date=June 29, 2020|archive-date=September 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926123836/http://rocketswag.com/elderly/generation/silent-generation/Divorce-In-The-Silent-Generation.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Critics of the theory that Silents tend towards conformity and playing it safe note that, at least in the United States, leaders of 1960s-era rebellion/innovation/protest such as [[Muhammad Ali]], [[Bob Dylan]], [[Noam Chomsky]], [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], and [[Jimi Hendrix]] were members of the Silent Generation, and not [[Baby Boomers]], for whom these figures were heroes, although the majority of their followers were Boomers.<ref name="Menand-2021" /> While seven [[List of presidents of the United States by age|Presidents of the United States]] were members of the [[Greatest Generation]] ([[John F. Kennedy]], [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], [[Richard Nixon]], [[Gerald Ford]], [[Jimmy Carter]], [[Ronald Reagan]], and [[George H. W. Bush]]); four presidents have been Baby Boomers ([[Bill Clinton]], [[George W. Bush]], [[Barack Obama]] and [[Donald Trump]]); two presidents were members of the [[Lost Generation]] ([[Harry S. Truman]]; and [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]), only one President, [[Joe Biden]], has been a member of the Silent Generation.

As a birth cohort, Silents never rose in protest as a unified political entity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/silent-generation-it-over/|title=Closing The Book On The Silent Generation|website=[[National Review]]|date=February 15, 2016|access-date=April 15, 2018|archive-date=March 23, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323231419/https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/silent-generation-it-over/|url-status=live}}</ref> Widely seen as "following the rules" and benefiting from stable wealth creation,  their Boomer and Gen X children would become estranged from them due to their different views regarding social issues of the day and their relatively decreased economic opportunity, creating a different generational [[zeitgeist]]. For example, the Boomer children were instrumental in bringing about the [[counterculture of the 1960s]], and the rise of left wing, liberal views considered [[anti-establishment]], which went directly against the "work within the system" approach that many Silents had practiced. [[Generation X|Gen X]] children grew up in the 1970s and 1980s with the threat of [[nuclear warfare|nuclear annihilation]] hanging over them and a resultant bleak view of the future, contributing to their generational disaffection, in contrast to the optimistic outlook of their Silent Generation parents.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Generation X, the Cold War and faith |last=Jenkins |first=Paula |magazine=catapult magazine |date=July 7, 2011 |volume=10 |issue=12 |url=http://www.catapultmagazine.com/my-generation/article/generation-x-the-cold-war-and-faith/ |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150626/http://www.catapultmagazine.com/my-generation/article/generation-x-the-cold-war-and-faith/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The style of parenting from the [[Lost Generation]] or the [[Interbellum Generation]] (older members of the [[Greatest Generation]]), was known to the Silents and the generations before them originated in the late 1800s, when the Lost Gens were Children or Teenagers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Child-Rearing Practices in the 1800s |last=O'Driscoll |first=Nicole |website=How To Adult |date=April 18, 2017 |url=https://howtoadult.com/childrearing-practices-1800s-8084427.html |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=September 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930012116/https://howtoadult.com/childrearing-practices-1800s-8084427.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Representative of this was the idea that "children should be seen but not heard". These ideas were ultimately challenged following the 1946 publication of the book ''[[The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care]]'' by [[Benjamin Spock]], which influenced some Boomers' views on parenting and family values when they became parents themselves.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/baby-boomer-parents/|title=This is How the Greatest Generation Ruined the Baby Boomers|date=April 28, 2018|website=Fatherly|access-date=January 19, 2023|archive-date=January 19, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119150629/https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/baby-boomer-parents|url-status=live}}</ref> The book also influenced how Baby Boomers were parented. These less-restrictive behavioral standards, seen as overly permissive by the Silents, further estranged those Boomers from their parents and, among other things, gave rise in the 1970s to the term [[generation gap]]. This was to describe the initial conflict of cultural values between the Silents and their [[Generation Jones]]er (younger Baby Boomers) and to a lesser extent, their [[Generation X]] children in the 1980s, although it wasn't quite as extreme as it was between the [[Greatest Generation]] and the "Leading Edge Boomers", (older Baby Boomers) in the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/generation-gap|title=Definition of generation gap &#124; Dictionary.com|website=www.dictionary.com|access-date=January 19, 2023|archive-date=February 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205212026/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/generation-gap|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Furlong>{{cite book|last1=Furlong|first1=Andy|title=Youth Studies: An Introduction|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-0-415-56479-3|page=12}}</ref>

==Demographics==
[[File:US living adult generations.png|center]]
Data is from the Pew Research Center.<ref name="2020Overtake"/> Recent cohort sizes are greater than the number born due to immigration.

==See also==
{{Stack|{{portal|1960s|Society}}}}
*[[Beat Generation]] 
*[[List of generations]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://archive.today/20120913200441/https://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,856950,00.html ''Time'' magazine, The Younger Generation, 1951]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080324004547/https://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878847,00.html ''Time'' magazine, "The Silent Generation Revisited", 1970]
*[https://jamesrbrett.com/TheSilentGeneration/ The Silent Generation]

{{s-start}}
{{succession box
| before = [[Greatest Generation]]<br />1901 &ndash; 1927
| title = Silent Generation
| years = 1928 &ndash; 1945
| after = [[Baby Boomers]]<br />1946 &ndash; 1964
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Generation}}

[[Category:20th century]]
[[Category:1950s neologisms]]
[[Category:Cultural generations|Silent]]