there is a much later year that surpassed 1957. The year 1957 was an impressive year for births (4.30M) and was arguably the peak of the baby boom and still the second highest year ever for births in the US, despite a much increased population since then. A common misconception is that the baby boom peaked in the late 1940's, immediately after the GI's returned home. Keep in mind, however, that most of the GI’s returning from WWII were not married. It took a while for them to find wives, get married and start families. Even those who were already married in the late 1940’s had younger children born in the 1950’s. There was a sub-peak in 1947, but the 1947 birth rate was exceeded in 1952 and remained above the 1947 level through 1961. In 1957, the birth rate was 122.7 births per 1000 women or almost one birth for every eight women of reproductive age. That rate had dropped to 85 per thousand reproductive age women in 1968 and was down to 55 births per thousand reproductive age women in 2023. All that said, there is one later year that did surpass 1957 in number of births.