You are here: Home > About Oak Hills > History

United States Cultural History
1980-1989

Facts About This Decade

• 226,542,203 people in the United States in 1980
  
• In 1980 14.1% of the population was foreign born.
  
• In 1985 the approximate percentage of persons 25 and older with a high school degree or higher was 70%.
  
• Harvard College Tuition 1985 $10,000.
  
• In 1980 there were 28.6 million veterans in civilian life.
  
• Between 1980-1989 there were approximately 100  executions under civil authority.
  
• In 1980 there were 139 state and federal prisoners per every 100,000 people.
  
• Approximately 43,000 new books were published in 1985.
  
• Teenage slang from the eighties
  • Terms for something good were def, rockin', smokin', or intense.
  • If you were amazed at something it blew you away.
  • A good-looking guy was a stud muffin; studly was an adjective for something good in a masculine way.
  • A good-looking girl was a honey.
  • Someone who sat watching TV all the time was a couch potato.
  • Something phony was bogus, something tacky was cheezy, and someone who imitated someone else was a wannabe.
  • Many words for cool: happening, radical and wicked to name a few.
  • If something was outdated, over, or ended, it was history.

References

Caplow, Theodore, Louis Hicks and Ben J. Wattenberg.  The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900-2000.  Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 2001.

Rollin, Lucy.  Twentieth-Century Teen Culture by the Decades: A Reference Guide.  Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.

World Almanac and Book of Facts 2002. New York: World Almanac Books, 2002.