Generation names and their birth years
A generation name stands for a range of birth years. Anthrotempo uses the boundaries of the Pew Research Center: Millennials, for example, were born from 1981 to 1996. The names describe when people were born, nothing about what they are like.
Names for ranges of years
Generation names are a convention, not a statistical standard. Researchers, marketers and journalists draw the lines in different places, and the same person can fall into different generations depending on whom you ask. Anthrotempo therefore uses one cited set of boundaries throughout, from the Pew Research Center, and links each one to the page where Pew published it.
| Generation | Born | Alive on 1 January 2026 | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greatest Generation | until 1927 | – | Pew Research Center, 2015 |
| Silent Generation | 1928–1945 | 169 million | Pew Research Center, 2015 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946–1964 | 991 million | Pew Research Center, 2019 |
| Generation X | 1965–1980 | 1.46 billion | Pew Research Center, 2019 |
| Millennials | 1981–1996 | 1.87 billion | Pew Research Center, 2019 |
| Generation Z | 1997–2012 | 2.05 billion | Pew Research Center, 2021 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013–2024 | 1.6 billion | convention, no Pew definition |
| Generation Beta | 2025–2039 | – | McCrindle Research |
What the counts mean
The column of people alive counts everyone born in the generation’s years who was alive on 1 January, from the UN World Population Prospects 2024. A generation is a group of birth cohorts, so its count only shrinks over time, apart from migration. Two generations have no count: the Greatest Generation, whose youngest members are now in the UN’s open group of 100 and over, where birth years can no longer be told apart, and Generation Beta, which is still being born.
What the names do not mean
A birth year says when someone was born. It says nothing about their values, habits or character, and the site never describes a generation that way. Boundaries are also somewhat arbitrary: someone born in December 1996 and someone born in January 1997 grew up at almost the same time but are given different names.
Last updated 26 October 2026