What separates Generation Y from X? And what about Gen Z and Gen A? What’s the cutoff for each? How old is each generation? Are they really that different? It’s easy to see why there is so much confusion about generational cohorts. If you’ve ever felt muddled by this “alphabet soup” of names, you’re not alone. But today we’re going to bring some clarity to this murky topic.
What’s a generation? In the old days it used to mean “all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively.” And, “the average period, generally considered to be about 20–30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and begin to have children.” This 20 to 30-year period has now shrunk to about 15, each “generation” having its own label and perceived characteristics.
The breakdown by age looks like this:
- Baby Boomers: Born between 1946 and 1964. They’re currently between 59-77 years old (71.6 million in the U.S.)
- Gen X: Born between 1965 and 1979/80 and is currently between 43-58 years old (65.2 million people in the U.S.)
- Gen Y: Also called Millennials, were born between 1981 and 1994/6. They are currently between 27 and 43 years old (72.1 million in the U.S.)
- Gen Z: The newest generation, born between 1997 and 2012. They are currently between 10 and 25 years old (nearly 68 million in the U.S.)
- Gen A: Starts with children born in 2012 and will continue at least through 2025, maybe later (approximately 48 million people in the U.S.)
Originally, the name Generation Z was a placeholder for the youngest people on the planet, but now Generation A has taken over that distinction. So it looks like we may be starting again from the top of the alphabet.
Why are generations named after letters? Up until 1970 or so, generations didn’t even have names. After the 70s, generations were given names: Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers and Millennials were the most recent. Then we started using letters of the alphabet. This happened mostly when marketing gurus realized that “branding” a generation, made it easier to identify their collective personality (as if there could be such a thing!) and they exploited that for marketing purposes, fattening their profits in the process.
In lumping together an entire swathe of people just because they were born within a certain range of years, it’s inevitable that there would be a stereotype for each one.
- Baby boomers: Highly competitive in the workplace, parents of a classic American family and think they’re in touch with technology, but they’re not.
- Generation X: Overly-independent, divorced and being negative and cynical.
- Millennials: Obsessed with avocado toast, love man buns, entitled, set unrealistic expectations and being tech savvy.
- Generation Z: Constantly on social media, obsessed with popularity and the “Tide Pod Challenge.”
Like all stereotypes, we should take these with a large grain of salt.
