In 1965, the British rock group The Who released “My Generation,” an anthem that expressed the desire to fit in during the age of rebellion. That song profoundly affected early Boomers in the US. The concept of generational cohort definitions and what each one signifies has been a source of endless fascination, especially in the US.
To understand the importance of these designations and help answer the question, “What is my generation?,” we turned to Jean M. Twenge, PhD, professor at San Diego State University who literally wrote the book on the topic.
“People run into differences among generations in every aspect of their lives. They’re trying to understand the different perspectives of their parents, maybe their grandparents, their kids, their grandkids,” says Dr. Twenge. “They see the generational divide at work. They see it in politics. It just comes up in so many aspects of life. And people want to know the generational labels so they can know what to call people—it’s awkward to say ‘people born between 1995 and 2009’ instead of just saying Gen Z.”
Generation Chart By Birth Years and Age Ranges
| Generation | Born | Currently |
| Silent Generation | 1925 to 1945 | 81 to over 100 years old |
| Baby Boomers | 1946 to 1964 | 62 to 80 years old |
| Generation X | 1965 to1979 | 47 to 61 years old |
| Millennials | 1980 to 1994 | 32 to 46 years old |
| Generation Z | 1995 to 2009 | 17 to 31 years old |
| Alphas | 2010 to 2024 | 2 to 16 years old |
| Betas | Beginning in 2025 | under age 2 |
What Is a Generation?
“In the early 20th century, sociologist Karl Mannheim wrote about generational differences. Originally, the idea of generations was generations within the same family, but then there started to be recognition of social generations,” Dr. Twenge explains.
The concept of generations “really solidified with the Baby Boomers in the mid-20th century because that was a generation defined by actual demographics. At that time, the late 1940s to early 1950s, there was a lot of talk about these new babies and how they were going to grow up so differently,” she adds. “Although there was discussion of generational trends before that, such as Ernest Hemingway’s ‘lost generation.’” That was a phrase writer Gertrude Stein shared with Hemingway after she heard in reference to young people in Europe after World War I.
“Often, it’s not the academics like me who settle on generation names. They stem from a consensus that forms over time,” Dr. Twenge says. Dates can be fluid and often are revised when more trends are factored in. “In my 2025 book, Generations, I put Gen Z as ending in 2012 and Alpha starting in 2013, and I had some good reasoning for that. But now the consensus seems to be that Gen Z ends in 2009 and Gen Alpha starts in 2010. We’ll see if that sticks, but you can absolutely make an argument based on length because the previous two generations were around 14 years long.”
Another example: The Pew Research Center chose 1997 as the first birth year for Gen Z. “I’m pretty confident in 1995 because of the huge change in teenagers’ mental health that started around 2012. I think 1997 is too late,” Twenge says.
Generation Names and Years
Generational characteristics are wide ranging, as Dr. Twenge explains in her profiles…
The Silent Generation (1925 to 1945) is a huge misnomer, she says. They changed laws and the structure of society, with two of its most famous members being Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) were the hippies of the 1960s, then the yuppies of the 1980s and are still many of our leaders. If The Silent Generation changed laws…Boomers changed hearts. They’re known for individualism, and they started the trend of marrying and having children later. Two boomers who capture a lot of this generation’s qualities are Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs.
Generation X (1965 to1979) is a relatively small generation in terms of population size and known for being independent, practical and tough. They are the last generation to have a unified pop culture experience (think Star Wars), since they grew up before YouTube and streaming video, which means everyone is watching different things. Gen X has not been as interested in politics as the Boomers before them and the Millennials after them. The most famous Gen Xer is the late Kurt Cobain of the American rock band Nirvana. The founders of Internet giants Google and YouTube all are Gen Xers and have had a profound impact on how people live.
Millennials (1980 to 1994) built on the individualism that began with the Boomers, placing a lot of emphasis on positive views of the self. They’re considerably less religious than previous generations and have continued some of the earlier trends, such as marrying and having children later. Taylor Swift and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are among the most famous Millennials.
Gen Z (1995 to 2009) is, significantly, “the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone,” says Dr. Twenge. “That had a huge impact on their lives in terms of how they spent their leisure time and the impact on their mental health.” Artists Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish…tennis star Coco Gauff…and actor Timothée Chalamet all are notable Gen Zers.
Gen Alpha (2010 to 2024) is the first generation to never know a world without the iPad. Many have spent their childhood on it, but we really don’t know that much about them yet, said Dr. Twenge. “In my book, I called them Polars, after melting polar ice caps and political polarization—accurate, but negative,” she said.
Why Do Generations Matter?
The era in which you were born influences everything from your behaviors and attitudes to your values and personality traits, explains Dr. Twenge. Appreciating generational differences is crucial for understanding family relationships, workplace relationships, politics and economics. Marketers use the information to determine what each generation, especially younger ones, values. “There’s a lot of proprietary marketing research on generational differences because they have the funds to do studies and focus groups, even on tweens. So marketers are often the first to see differences popping up,” Dr. Twenge explains.
“It’s common for people to say about generational differences, Well, isn’t this just stereotyping? It can be, but if you’re looking at actual data from real people who are telling us about how they spend their time and how they’re feeling and what’s important to them, that’s not stereotyping…that’s listening, and that’s what we should be doing,” Dr. Twenge says.
