For decades, Pew Inquiry Centre has been committed to measuring public attitudes on key issues and documenting differences in those attitudes across demographic groups. Ane lens oft employed past researchers at the Center to sympathize these differences is that of generation.

Generations provide the opportunity to wait at Americans both by their place in the life cycle – whether a young developed, a heart-anile parent or a retiree – and past their membership in a cohort of individuals who were born at a similar time.

Michael Dimock
Michael Dimock, president of Pew Research Center

Equally nosotros've examined in past work, generational cohorts give researchers a tool to analyze changes in views over time. They can provide a way to empathise how dissimilar determinative experiences (such as world events and technological, economic and social shifts) interact with the life-cycle and aging process to shape people'due south views of the world. While younger and older adults may differ in their views at a given moment, generational cohorts permit researchers to examine how today's older adults felt about a given effect when they themselves were young, equally well as to describe how the trajectory of views might differ across generations.

Pew Research Center has been studying the Millennial generation for more a decade. Merely by 2018, it became articulate to u.s. that it was time to determine a cutoff betoken between Millennials and the side by side generation. Turning 38 this year, the oldest Millennials are well into adulthood, and they showtime entered adulthood before today'due south youngest adults were born.

In social club to keep the Millennial generation analytically meaningful, and to begin looking at what might be unique virtually the next cohort, Pew Research Center decided a twelvemonth ago to utilize 1996 equally the last birth year for Millennials for our future work. Anyone born betwixt 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) is considered a Millennial, and anyone born from 1997 onward is part of a new generation.

Generation dominates online searches for information on the post-Millennial generation

Since the oldest among this rising generation are merely turning 22 this year, and well-nigh are yet in their teens or younger, we hesitated at kickoff to give them a proper name – Generation Z, the iGeneration and Homelanders were some early on candidates. (In our first in-depth await at this generation, we used the term "postal service-Millennials" as a placeholder.) But over the past year, Gen Z has taken hold in popular culture and journalism. Sources ranging from Merriam-Webster and Oxford to the Urban Dictionary now include this name for the generation that follows Millennials, and Google Trends data show that "Generation Z" is far outpacing other names in people'southward searches for information. While there is no scientific process for deciding when a proper name has stuck, the momentum is clearly backside Gen Z.

Generational cutoff points aren't an exact science. They should be viewed primarily as tools, allowing for the kinds of analyses detailed above. Merely their boundaries are not arbitrary. Generations are frequently considered past their span, but again there is no agreed upon formula for how long that span should be. At 16 years (1981 to 1996), our working definition of Millennials is equivalent in age span to their preceding generation, Generation X (built-in betwixt 1965 and 1980). By this definition, both are shorter than the bridge of the Infant Boomers (nineteen years) – the only generation officially designated past the U.Southward. Demography Agency, based on the famous surge in mail service-WWII births in 1946 and a pregnant decline in birthrates after 1964.

Unlike the Boomers, in that location are no comparably definitive thresholds by which afterwards generational boundaries are defined. But for analytical purposes, we believe 1996 is a meaningful cutoff between Millennials and Gen Z for a number of reasons, including key political, economical and social factors that ascertain the Millennial generation's determinative years.

The generations defined

Nigh Millennials were between the ages of 5 and twenty when the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook the nation, and many were old plenty to comprehend the historical significance of that moment, while most members of Gen Z have lilliputian or no memory of the event. Millennials also grew upwardly in the shadow of the wars in Iraq and Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, which sharpened broader views of the parties and contributed to the intense political polarization that shapes the current political environment. And most Millennials were between 12 and 27 during the 2008 election, where the strength of the youth vote became part of the political conversation and helped elect the first black president. Added to that is the fact that Millennials are the well-nigh racially and ethnically diverse adult generation in the nation'south history. Yet the next generation – Generation Z – is even more diverse.

Across politics, most Millennials came of age and entered the workforce facing the superlative of an economic recession. As is well documented, many of Millennials' life choices, future earnings and archway to machismo accept been shaped by this recession in a way that may not be the case for their younger counterparts. The long-term effects of this "slow start" for Millennials will be a factor in American society for decades.

Applied science, in particular the rapid development of how people communicate and interact, is another generation-shaping consideration. Baby Boomers grew up as television expanded dramatically, changing their lifestyles and connexion to the world in fundamental ways. Generation X grew upward as the computer revolution was taking concord, and Millennials came of age during the net explosion.

In this progression, what is unique for Generation Z is that all of the above have been part of their lives from the beginning. The iPhone launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen Zers were ten. By the fourth dimension they were in their teens, the main means by which immature Americans connected with the web was through mobile devices, WiFi and loftier-bandwidth cellular service. Social media, constant connectivity and on-demand amusement and communication are innovations Millennials adapted to every bit they came of historic period. For those born after 1996, these are largely assumed.

The implications of growing up in an "ever on" technological surround are only now coming into focus. Recent research has shown dramatic shifts in youth behaviors, attitudes and lifestyles – both positive and concerning – for those who came of age in this era. What we don't know is whether these are lasting generational imprints or characteristics of adolescence that volition become more than muted over the grade of their adulthood. Get-go to track this new generation over time volition be of meaning importance.

Pew Research Centre is non the first to draw an analytical line between Millennials and the generation to follow them, and many have offered well-reasoned arguments for drawing that line a few years earlier or after than where we accept. Perchance, as more data are nerveless over the years, a clear, singular depiction will sally. Nosotros remain open to recalibrating if that occurs. Just more than likely the historical, technological, behavioral and attitudinal data will show more of a continuum beyond generations than a threshold. Every bit has been the instance in the past, this means that the differences within generations can be just as great equally the differences across generations, and the youngest and oldest within a commonly defined cohort may feel more than in common with bordering generations than the one to which they are assigned. This is a reminder that generations themselves are inherently various and complex groups, non simple caricatures.

In the near term, you will meet a number of reports and analyses from the Center that go along to build on our portfolio of generational research. Today, we issued a written report looking – for the showtime time – at how members of Generation Z view some of the key social and political issues facing the nation today and how their views compare with those of older generations. To be sure, the views of this generation are non fully formed and could change considerably equally they age and as national and global events intervene. Even and then, this early wait provides some compelling clues nearly how Gen Z volition help shape the future political landscape.

In the coming weeks, nosotros will be releasing demographic analyses that compare Millennials to previous generations at the aforementioned phase in their life cycle to see if the demographic, economical and household dynamics of Millennials go along to stand apart from their predecessors. In improver, we will build on our research on teens' technology use by exploring the daily lives, aspirations and pressures today's 13- to 17-year-olds face up every bit they navigate the teenage years.

Yet, we remain cautious nigh what can be projected onto a generation when they remain so immature. Donald Trump may exist the first U.Due south. president about Gen Zers know as they turn 18, and just as the contrast between George Due west. Bush and Barack Obama shaped the political fence for Millennials, the electric current political environment may accept a similar effect on the attitudes and engagement of Gen Z, though how remains a question. As important every bit today'south news may seem, information technology is more than probable that the technologies, debates and events that will shape Generation Z are still yet to exist known.

Nosotros look forward to spending the adjacent few years studying this generation as it enters machismo. All the while, we'll proceed in listen that generations are a lens through which to understand societal alter, rather than a label with which to oversimplify differences betwixt groups.

Note: This is an update of a post that was originally published March i, 2018, to denote the Center'southward adoption of 1996 equally an endpoint to births in the Millennial generation.