What are the ages of those in the Gen X and Gen Z groups?

[BigmanPigman]

Is there now a Gen Y?

I get seriously confused and would like to know so I can study real polls correctly.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. I'm not Gen X or Gen Y.

but I am a Baby Boomer, which is, I guess, before Gen X and Gen Y.

[Sympthsical]

2. Gen Y are the Millennials

Millennials are generally 1980-2000. Gen Z is after that.

Gen X is post-Boomer, so roughly 1965-1980.

There's some overlap in things, so a lot of people will categorize them based on cultural markers. For example, Gen X are considered to have had a 70s childhood. Millennials are often described as "Analog childhood, digital adulthood" because personal computing and the internet blew up and became widespread during our adolescence. Gen Z is often thought of as the post-9/11 generation.

Always some variance about dates and markers, but that's generally the gist of it.

[róisín_dubh]

14. I've heard X-ennial

To describe those of us born in the late-70s and early-80s, as we had the analog childhood and digital adulthood. I was born in 1977 and identify more wil millennials in most things I think.

[LostOne4Ever]

28. Yeah that is me too

Born in the early 80s I remember beta-max players and a very analog early childhood.

[WestMichRad]

3. Glad you asked, I was wondering the same!

This from a USA Today article:
Baby boomers are anyone born from 1946 to 1964.
Generation X is anyone born from 1965 to 1980.
Millennials are anyone born from 1981 to 1996.
Generation Z is anyone born from 1997 to 2012.

And apparently they are calling the next group Generation alpha…

[Kennah]

9. Another name for Alpha I've heard is the Homeland Generation

[Celerity]

15. The Homeland Generation is an American alternative name for Gen Z (but the dates some of the

promoters of the name use are non standard, and do overlap into the first part of Gen Alpha ( born 2013 to ???, but 2028 if we keep doing the 16 years to a Gen thing)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z

Etymology and nomenclature

The name Generation Z is a reference to the fact that it is the second generation after Generation X, continuing the alphabetical sequence from Generation Y (Millennials). Other proposed names for the generation included iGeneration, The Homeland Generation, Net Gen, Digital Natives, Neo-Digital Natives, Pluralist Generation, Internet Generation, Centennials, and Post-Millennials. Psychology professor and author Jean Twenge used the term iGeneration (or iGen for short), originally intending to use it as the title of her 2006 book about Millennials, Generation Me, before being overruled by her publisher, Atria Publishing Group. At that time, there were iPods and iMac computers but no iPhones or iPads. Twenge later used the term for her 2017 book iGen. The name has also been asserted to have been created by demographer Cheryl Russell in 2009.

In 2014, author Neil Howe coined the term Homeland Generation as a continuation of the Strauss–Howe generational theory with William Strauss. The term Homeland refers to being the first generation to enter childhood after protective surveillance state measures, like the Department of Homeland Security, were put into effect following the September 11 attacks. The Pew Research Center surveyed the various names for this cohort on Google Trends in 2019 and found that in the U.S., the term Generation Z was overwhelmingly the most popular, from then on calling it Gen Z in their research. The Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries both have official entries for Generation Z.

In Japan, the cohort is described as neo-digital natives, a step beyond the previous cohort described as digital natives. Digital natives primarily communicate by text or voice, while neo-digital natives use video, video-telephony, and movies. This emphasizes the shift from PC to mobile and text to video among the neo-digital population. Zoomer is an informal term used to refer to members of Generation Z. It combines the shorthand boomer, referring to baby boomers, with the "Z" from Generation Z. Zoomer in its current incarnation skyrocketed in popularity in 2018, when it was used in a 4chan internet meme mocking Gen Z adolescents via a Wojak caricature dubbed a "Zoomer". Merriam-Webster's records suggest the use of the term zoomer in the sense of Generation Z dates back at least as far as 2016. It was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in October 2021 and to Dictionary.com in January 2020. Prior to this, zoomer was occasionally used to describe particularly active baby boomers.

snip

Introducing the Homeland Generation (Part 1 of 2)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/10/27/introducing-the-homeland-generation-part-1-of-2/?sh=fc014482bd67

that article starts it at 2005, and says he choose it:

Why was 2005 chosen as this generation’s first birth year?

The 2005 date remains tentative. You can’t be sure where history will someday draw a cohort dividing line until a generation fully comes of age. But for now, 2005 is my best guess. History teaches that new generations first appear about one full phase of life, or about 18 to 24 years, after the first appearance of the last generation. Generational boundaries are also typically drawn 2 to 4 years before abrupt changes in the national mood. Millennials first appeared in 1982. That points to 2000 to 2006 as the opening window for the next generation. The reason I chose 2005 exactly—and again, this remains tentative—is that kids born in that year and after will recall nothing before Barack Obama’s presidency, the financial meltdown of 2008, and the seemingly endless Great Recession that followed.

BUT, if that is his reason, then it should be 2006 (as some 2005 borns will remember (even if vaguely, but I myself started to read when I was 3 and I deffo recall the end of 1999 (the fake Millennium end, which actually ended on Dec 31, 2000, when we completed 2000 years since Dec 31, 1 BC flipped to January 1, 1 AD), a couple months after I turned 3, as I was born late 1996, the last Millennial birth year) the 2007-2009 global financial crisis and also the year of 2008 before Obama was elected (and sworn in January 20, 2009)

My own micro Gen, the Zillennials (roughly 1992 to 1998 born) ends at 1998 because to be a Zillennial you should have at least some vague memory of 9/11, and have been under 10 as well when it occured.

[maxsolomon]

32. "Homeland Generation" is ridiculous.

That will never catch on. Sounds incredibly dystopian.

[Celerity]

38. agreed, I hate it

[eShirl]

17. No way this 1970 Kindergarten graduate is a baby boomer! I will never accept that.

I'm MTV generation and graduated high school in the 1980's. Does that sound like a boomer to you?

[LeftInTX]

18. Sounds like Gen X

[Johonny]

27. Like me, you're Gen X

The forgotten generation.

[tinrobot]

30. There's also Generation Jones - between Boomer and Gen X

Approximately 1955-64. It was the "boomers" who didn't get to experience the 1960's. We were home watching cartoons while our older siblings went to Woodstock.

We came of age in the 70's with oil crises, Watergate, disco, SNL, and punk rock.

[yardwork]

40. That's me and my wife. We "late boomers" are different from classic boomers.

[keep_left]

41. Generation Jones also tends to skew more conservative than the earlier Boomers because of...

...their historical experience (the oil shocks, economic crises, deindustrialization, etc.) and the fact that they were too young to partake in the counterculture. Generation Jones is also known for ambition, social-climbing, and acquisitiveness. They were likely more represented among the "yuppies" and those that became neocons in their maturity, but that's highly debated.

There's a similar trend among Gen X. The older Xers (born 1970 and earlier) are often seen as having more in common with the later Boomers (Generation Jones); conversely, the younger Xers (born in the later '70s) are seen as closer in outlook to the Millennials (formerly called Gen Y). By the way, it's been suggested that Gen X should end at 1979, probably because that was an extremely eventful year historically (the crises in Central America, Iran, Afghanistan, the Carter "Crisis of Confidence" aka "Malaise" speech, etc.). You could argue that the '80s began in 1979.

I always wondered if the reason the historians and demographers came up with these new names (Millennials, "Zoomers", etc.) is because they were dumb enough to start at the end of the alphabet for Generation X! You only get two more generations after that before you have to rethink your whole naming strategy.

[tinrobot]

42. Obama is Generation Jones - hardly a conservative.

Just like with all generations, political affiliations are mixed. You can't generalize too much.

[keep_left]

44. That's right...I actually said as much a while ago in another post.

Yes, I forgot about "Generation Jones", which I understand is the group of younger Boomers that I described: acquisitive social climbers, and not particularly interested in partaking of the counterculture. Similarly, a subgroup of Xers has been suggested, though I can't remember what it's called. But likewise, this grouping would contain the later (younger) Xers born in the '70s.

The main thing to remember, however, is that these generational groupings are pretty crude categorizations. Some of them cover much larger spans of time than others do (the Boomers) or contain a much larger population (again, the Boomers), while some groupings are quite small by comparison (Gen X). You can only say so much about any particular generation that is specific; usually only the most broad generalizations are possible.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=17815396

You can only speak in broad generalities about any particular generational grouping. And these labels don't apply to individuals.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

33. Gex X starts in 1965.

I was born in '66. My wife was born in '64. We do trend toward our specific generation by birthdate.

[NutmegYankee]

43. The years vary depending on who is doing the polling.

The federal gov considers 1979 to be millennial for instance.

[drray23]

4. From the Pew research center:

Baby boomers are anyone born from 1946 to 1964.

Generation X is anyone born from 1965 to 1980.

Millennials are anyone born from 1981 to 1996.

Generation Z is anyone born from 1997 to 2012.

[MyMission]

5. Here's some information from pew research

I have trouble keeping track, and have looked it up before.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/

I've . also looked at Wikipedia, which says that Gen Alpha is the current generation being born.

[Meowmee]

6. According to this

Gen Z is young at 11-26, and gen X is older at 43-58. Millennials are in-between at 27-42.

https://www.beresfordresearch.com/age-range-by-generation/

I personally find all of these labels to be useless, and often divisive.

[BigmanPigman]

7. I find myself on a "cusp", straddling

Baby Boomers and Gen X since I am going to be 61. These labels are confusing and as you state "often divisive".

[Meowmee]

8. Yes me too

Until somebody rewrote history. It was supposed to be mostly people born in the 50s as far as I recall and then they changed it all the way up to 1964.

Just a bunch of bs imo.

[BigmanPigman]

11. Definitely BS!

[llmart]

22. Exactly!

That's how I have always thought of my boomer generation - that "someone" rewrote history about who was considered a boomer. The term, as I was taught, was coined for those of us who were born shortly after WWII ended and the troops came home and started a family. How can anyone consider someone born in 1964 with that connotation?

[blogslug]

16. Generation Jones

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones

Generation Jones is the social cohort of the latter half of the Baby boomer generation to the first year of Generation X. The term Generation Jones was first coined by the American cultural commentator Jonathan Pontell, who identified the cohort as those born from 1954 to 1965 in the U.S., who were children during Watergate, the oil crisis, and stagflation rather than during the 1950s, but slightly before Gen X.

Unlike "leading-edge boomers", most of Generation Jones did not grow up with World War II veterans as fathers, and, as they reached adulthood, there was no compulsory military service and no defining political cause, as opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War was for the older boomers. Their parents' generation was sandwiched between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers. Also, by 1955, a majority of U.S. households had at least one television set, and so unlike Leading-Edge Boomers born from the mid 1940s to the early 1950s, many members of Generation Jones (trailing-edge boomers) have never lived in a world without television—similar to how many members of Generation Z (1997–2012) have never lived in a world without personal computers or the internet,[14] or mobile phones.[15] Generation Jones were children during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and were young adults when HIV/AIDS became a worldwide threat in the 1980s...

[LeftInTX]

20. Fits me to tee

My dad was Korea. He would have had to drop out of HS to enlist in WWII. We weren't the draftees generation. We feared tt, but it didn't hsppen.. Born in 1956

[Tree Lady]

25. Also born in 56 but dad was in WW2

left his job at 19 (just during war) He was born end of 1923.

I miss my dad but he was very political and got angry easy. He was a Kennedy democrat and took me to see Robert Kennedy driving through bay area few months before he was killed. He died a few months before Gore lost. Would not have made it through Bush or Trump without heart attack.

[phylny]

45. Thanks for posting this,

saved me the trouble!

I was born in 1958 and don't see myself as a "boomer."

I'll be sixty-five on May 5th. How did THAT happen?

[ismnotwasm]

23. Yeah there is a sub category that doesn't get much traction called "Generation Jones"

It’s the younger boomers, 1954-1964.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones

[Tree Lady]

24. It's funny to me to think my younger

daughter at 42 is a millennial same as my grandson 27 by my older daughter. Both act more like the generation above and below them.

[Kennah]

10. I put some stock in Generational Theory, but it's not absolute

"The Fourth Turning" is a great read on the subject. This was a Thom Hartman recommendation.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

12. 1965

I am 1st. Year of gen x

[BigmanPigman]

13. I was born in 1962 and don't really identify as

a Baby Boomer or a Gen Xer. I think I am in limbo, straddling both groups.

[Polybius]

29. In my experience, any Xer born before 1970 has more in common with Boomers

I don't mean politics, I mean everything else. You guys don't like video games nearly as much as we do, and missed out on the toy boom of the 80's (what, no He-Man?). The culture is a lot different than us early 70's Xers.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

31. Not me

I am goth,punk even have the anti aging powers of gen x. I look like a gen x.. I relate to younger gen x
Millenials,and a lot of gen z. My politics are in line with gen Z. Boomers somewhat but thier way of thinking sometimes rubs my fur the wrong way. Definately not traditional in any sense myself. My politics scares boomers,😹

[Polybius]

36. Yeah but you missed out on some really cool toys in the 80's

Unless you still played with them at an older age.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

34. It's more split that you are thinking.

I was born in 1966. Serious video gamer. Love He-Man. Do not trend Boomer.

[Polybius]

35. You still played with toys at 17?

That's how old you were when He-Man was in full swing in 1983. I myself was similar, stopping around 1990.

Atari and NES were great in the 80's, glad to see a fellow gamers.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

37. Shit, I still play with toys now.

My collection of 30-ish Thor Funko Pops is behind me in my classroom.

[Polybius]

39. I collect them too today

But I don't play with them in the same way that I did in 1983. I miss the fun I had then.

[Aristus]

19. I'm Gen X. 1968.

It’s been a hell of a ride.

I feel so sorry for Gen Z. All they’ve ever known is the spectacularly shitty 21st Century.

[leighbythesea2]

21. Same

And I 2nd this. My daughter is millennial and stepsons are gen z. My daughter has gotten hit after hit, at key milestones in her adulthood.
She doing fine, but I grate at the “millennials are fragile” message. It was, and is, click bait.

[LostOne4Ever]

26. There are lots of different ways of the generations

Some ways call me the last of Gen X some say first of the millennials.

Ultimately it is just a social construct for dividing people up and doesn’t dictate anything about the person.