Suburbia refers to the residential areas that spread out around the edges of cities, made up of neighborhoods with houses, yards, schools, and shopping centers. If you imagine a city as a busy downtown core with tall buildings and crowded streets, suburbia is the calmer area surrounding it, where families live in separate houses with driveways and lawns.

Suburbia describes the whole suburban way of life and landscape, the collective experience of living in suburbs. After World War II, millions of American families moved to newly built suburbs, transforming farmland into subdivisions with similar-looking houses on tree-lined streets. This created suburbia as we know it today.

When people talk about suburbia, they're often describing a particular lifestyle: driving to the grocery store instead of walking, having a backyard for playing, riding bikes through quiet streets, and living in communities where many neighbors work in the nearby city. Some people love suburbia's space and sense of safety, while others find it too quiet or spread out. Either way, suburbia became home to most American families during the late 20th century, shaping how millions of people grew up and lived.