For decades, Pew Research Centre has been committed to measuring public attitudes on cardinal issues and documenting differences in those attitudes across demographic groups. One lens often employed past researchers at the Center to empathise these differences is that of generation.

Generations provide the opportunity to wait at Americans both by their place in the life bike – whether a young adult, a middle-anile parent or a retiree – and by their membership in a accomplice of individuals who were born at a similar time.

Michael Dimock
Michael Dimock, president of Pew Research Center

As we've examined in by piece of work, generational cohorts give researchers a tool to analyze changes in views over time. They can provide a way to empathize how different formative experiences (such equally 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 issue when they themselves were immature, too as to describe how the trajectory of views might differ across generations.

Pew Enquiry Middle has been studying the Millennial generation for more than a decade. But by 2018, it became clear to us that it was time to determine a cutoff point between Millennials and the adjacent generation. Turning 38 this twelvemonth, the oldest Millennials are well into adulthood, and they first entered adulthood before today'south youngest adults were born.

In order to go along the Millennial generation analytically meaningful, and to brainstorm looking at what might be unique nigh the next cohort, Pew Research Center decided a year ago to use 1996 as the final birth year for Millennials for our future work. Anyone built-in between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) is considered a Millennial, and anyone built-in from 1997 onward is part of a new generation.

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

Since the oldest amongst this rising generation are but turning 22 this year, and most are still in their teens or younger, we hesitated at first to requite them a name – Generation Z, the iGeneration and Homelanders were some early candidates. (In our first in-depth look at this generation, we used the term "post-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 Lexicon 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's searches for information. While in that location is no scientific process for deciding when a name has stuck, the momentum is clearly behind Gen Z.

Generational cutoff points aren't an verbal science. They should exist viewed primarily equally tools, assuasive for the kinds of analyses detailed above. Simply their boundaries are not capricious. Generations are frequently considered by their span, only 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 (born betwixt 1965 and 1980). By this definition, both are shorter than the span of the Baby Boomers (nineteen years) – the only generation officially designated by the U.S. Census Bureau, based on the famous surge in post-WWII births in 1946 and a meaning decline in birthrates after 1964.

Unlike the Boomers, there are no comparably definitive thresholds past which later generational boundaries are defined. Simply for analytical purposes, nosotros believe 1996 is a meaningful cutoff betwixt Millennials and Gen Z for a number of reasons, including fundamental political, economic and social factors that define the Millennial generation's determinative years.

The generations defined

Most Millennials were between the ages of 5 and xx when the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook the nation, and many were quondam plenty to comprehend the historical significance of that moment, while nigh members of Gen Z take niggling or no memory of the event. Millennials besides grew up in the shadow of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which sharpened broader views of the parties and contributed to the intense political polarization that shapes the current political environs. And most Millennials were between 12 and 27 during the 2008 election, where the force of the youth vote became part of the political conversation and helped elect the showtime blackness president. Added to that is the fact that Millennials are the most racially and ethnically diverse adult generation in the nation's history. Still the next generation – Generation Z – is even more than diverse.

Across politics, about Millennials came of historic period and entered the workforce facing the superlative of an economic recession. As is well documented, many of Millennials' life choices, future earnings and entrance to adulthood have been shaped past this recession in a mode that may not be the case for their younger counterparts. The long-term effects of this "tiresome start" for Millennials will exist a factor in American guild for decades.

Technology, in particular the rapid development of how people communicate and collaborate, is another generation-shaping consideration. Baby Boomers grew up as television expanded dramatically, changing their lifestyles and connection to the globe in central ways. Generation X grew up every bit the computer revolution was taking hold, 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 showtime. The iPhone launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen Zers were 10. By the time they were in their teens, the primary means by which immature Americans connected with the web was through mobile devices, WiFi and high-bandwidth cellular service. Social media, constant connectivity and on-demand entertainment and communication are innovations Millennials adapted to equally they came of age. For those born later on 1996, these are largely assumed.

The implications of growing up in an "e'er on" technological environment are but 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 go more than muted over the form of their adulthood. Kickoff to track this new generation over time will be of significant importance.

Pew Inquiry Center is non the beginning to depict an analytical line betwixt Millennials and the generation to follow them, and many have offered well-reasoned arguments for drawing that line a few years earlier or later than where we take. Peradventure, as more information are collected over the years, a clear, singular depiction will emerge. We remain open to recalibrating if that occurs. But more than likely the historical, technological, behavioral and attitudinal data will bear witness more of a continuum across generations than a threshold. As has been the case in the past, this ways that the differences within generations tin can be just as great as the differences across generations, and the youngest and oldest within a unremarkably defined accomplice may feel more in common with adjoining generations than the one to which they are assigned. This is a reminder that generations themselves are inherently diverse and circuitous groups, non simple caricatures.

In the well-nigh term, you will see a number of reports and analyses from the Center that keep to build on our portfolio of generational research. Today, we issued a study looking – for the offset fourth dimension – at how members of Generation Z view some of the fundamental 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 not fully formed and could change considerably as they historic period and every bit national and global events intervene. Withal, this early on wait provides some compelling clues most how Gen Z will help shape the future political mural.

In the coming weeks, we will be releasing demographic analyses that compare Millennials to previous generations at the same phase in their life cycle to run into if the demographic, economic and household dynamics of Millennials go on to stand apart from their predecessors. In addition, we will build on our inquiry on teens' engineering utilize by exploring the daily lives, aspirations and pressures today's xiii- to 17-year-olds face as they navigate the teenage years.

Nevertheless, nosotros remain cautious about what tin be projected onto a generation when they remain so young. Donald Trump may be the first U.Due south. president most Gen Zers know as they turn 18, and just as the contrast between George W. Bush and Barack Obama shaped the political debate for Millennials, the electric current political environs may have a like effect on the attitudes and engagement of Gen Z, though how remains a question. As important as today's news may seem, it is more than likely that the technologies, debates and events that volition shape Generation Z are withal yet to exist known.

We look forward to spending the next few years studying this generation as information technology enters adulthood. All the while, we'll proceed in mind that generations are a lens through which to understand societal change, rather than a label with which to oversimplify differences between groups.

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