Born in the 1930s

The world they were born into

The 1930s were the decade of the Great Depression, which began with the crash of 1929 and put tens of millions out of work across North America and Europe. In the American plains, drought and dust storms drove families from their farms. The BBC began a regular television service in 1936, though very few homes had a set, and the cinema became the great escape of the decade. In South Africa white women over 21 won the vote in 1930; the vote was not extended to every adult South African until 1994.

Growing up

The decade closed with the start of the Second World War in September 1939. A child born in the 1930s was often evacuated, rationed or raised in a household where a parent was away at war, and many of that cohort remember the war years better than anything before them.

Which generation

Everyone born in the 1930s belongs to the Silent Generation. The boundaries are conventions rather than facts, and the generations page names the source for each one.

The marked line is 1930, where the decade begins.

Year by year

The Chinese year begins not on 1 January but at a new moon, usually the second after the December solstice, and from 1900 to 2100 always between 21 January and 20 February. In the 1930s it began as early as 24 January, in 1936, and as late as 19 February, in 1939, so a birthday in January or early February belongs to the animal of the year before. The table gives the day each year began.

New year dates are worked out from the new moons and the solar terms, and checked against published tables. Born before the new year →

Read on

• Silent Generation
• How generations are defined
• The 1920s
• The 1940s
• Every year