Understanding US Population Projections

There's too much online prognostication and too little data analysis. Let's set the record straight on what's happening.

After World War II, thanks to soldiers returning home, a booming economy with jobs for everyone, and new government support (e.g. the GI Bill, subsidized low-interest mortgages, and family-friendly tax benefits), the US fertility rate soared to a peak of about 3.8 in 1957 and stayed in the mid-3s from the mid-1950s through the early 1960s before steeply…