I posted about this before: Demographics: Age ranges for “Named Generations” – Coldstreams
- The Greatest Generation: Born 1901 to 1927.
- The Silent Generation: Born 1928-1945 (78-95 years old) [17 years]
- Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964 (59-77 years old) [18 years]
- Unofficial: Generation Jones: Born 1955–1964
- Gen X: Born 1965-1980 (43-58 years old) [15 years]
- Millennials: Born 1981-1996 (27-42 years old) [15 years]
- Gen Z: Born 1997-2012 (11-26 years old) [15 years]
- Gen Alpha: Born early 2010s-2025 (0-about 10 years old)
The idea of labels was that people in a “generation” would be shaped by common experiences and this could be used to categories entire generations of people – perhaps useful for marketing and politics. But real-life experiences vary a lot by individual, and some of these generations are so large that younger and older members have little in common.
Some say the tail end of the Baby Boom is more like Gen X than the Baby Boom (and being in that tail end, I agree). Others created a new group “Generation Jones” to label the tail end.
But there are other important distinctions. A “Baby boomer” born in 1946 might have given birth to a “Gen X” baby – this is completely feasible and reasonable.
Some misinterpret this to suggest that “Millennials” are the children of Gen X, and Gen X the children of the Baby Boom, but that is certainly not true.
Even though I am a short step from “Gen X”, my own parents, oddly enough, were “The Greatest Generation” born early in the 20th century – I am nearly 3 “generations” removed from my parents’ generation! My parents were over 40 when I was born, which meant an entire generation of separation between me and many of my own contemporaries – who were born when their parents were close to 20.
I grew up with parents that lived through the Great Depression, and this hugely influenced their views and values for life – values that were passed on to me.
My contemporaries, on the other hand, were generally born from a generation that came 20 years later – and had a different set of experiences and values that were passed along to them. And that has meant my values were out of synch with their newer, and likely more appropriate values for the modern era.
Late births (in the normal family cycle) create oddities like me having a great grandfather born 137 years before me (the average difference for that is about 75 years). This is because he was old when my grandmother was born, and she was the youngest of many kids, and then my Mom was the youngest of her family, and then she gave birth to me, very late in age.
As you can begin to see, generation labels are a noisy metric that some suggest causes more harm than benefits. The PWC even said generation labels do not mean much – yet they are the basis of news stories and analysis published every day!
Here is what Microsoft Copilot has to say about this:
Using generation labels to define entire groups of people can have some problems, such as:
- They can create stereotypes and biases that affect how people perceive and interact with each other, especially in the workplace12.
- They can oversimplify the diversity and complexity of individuals within each generation, ignoring the effects of other factors such as culture, education, personality, and life experiences34.
- They can misrepresent the actual differences and similarities between generations, as there is no scientific evidence for clear-cut generational cohorts or traits24.
Therefore, it is important to use generation labels with caution and skepticism, and to focus more on the individual characteristics and needs of each person, rather than assuming they fit into a predefined category based on their birth year.
