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United States Cultural History
1990-1999

Facts About This Decade

• 248,709,873 people in the United States in 1990
  

• In 1990 19.8% of the population was foreign born.
  

• In 1998 the approximate percentage of persons 25 and older with a high school degree or higher was 83%.
  

• Harvard College Tuition 1999 $22,054.
  

• In 1990 there were 27.0 million veterans in civilian life.
  

• Between 1990-1999 there were approximately 325 executions under civil authority.
  

• In 1999 there were 462 state and federal prisoners per every 100,000 people.
  

• Approximately 65,000 new books were published in 1997.
  

• Teenage slang from the nineties

  • Your car is your ride, your room is your crib, and someone in authority is a suit.

  • You won't take it when someone "disses" you.

  • "You da man!" means you're the best.

  • Your response to something really dumb, whether you said it or someone else did, is "Duh."

  • The best word to just dismiss something is "Whatever," and if you are mystified by something, such as a question on a test, you are clueless.

  • "Way!" is the answer if you disagree with someone who says "No way" or way can also mean very, as in "He's way smart."

  • A favorite late Nineties exclamation is "Dang!"

  • "Like," means almost, said, really: "He's like, 100 years old"; "So I'm like, 'but I don't want to go out with you.'"

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.