A baby boomer is a person born between 1946 and 1964 in Australia, Canada or the United States. Following World War II, the United States experienced an unusual spike in birth rates, a phenomenon commonly known as the baby boom. The term is iconic and more properly capitalized as Baby Boomers. The terms "baby boomer" and "baby boom" along with others (e.g. "boomies" or "boomers") are also used in countries with demographics that did not mirror the sustained growth in American families over the same interval.