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

Generations provide the opportunity to look at Americans both past their identify in the life cycle – whether a young adult, a eye-aged parent or a retiree – and by their membership in a cohort of individuals who were born at a similar fourth dimension.

Michael Dimock
Michael Dimock, president of Pew Research Center

As we've examined in past work, generational cohorts give researchers a tool to analyze changes in views over time. They can provide a way to understand how different formative experiences (such as globe events and technological, economic and social shifts) collaborate with the life-cycle and aging process to shape people's views of the world. While younger and older adults may differ in their views at a given moment, generational cohorts allow researchers to examine how today'due south older adults felt about a given issue when they themselves were young, besides every bit to describe how the trajectory of views might differ across generations.

Pew Enquiry Eye has been studying the Millennial generation for more than a decade. But by 2018, it became clear to u.s. that it was time to determine a cutoff indicate between Millennials and the next generation. Turning 38 this year, the oldest Millennials are well into machismo, and they first entered machismo earlier today'due south youngest adults were built-in.

In order to keep the Millennial generation analytically meaningful, and to begin looking at what might be unique about the next cohort, Pew Research Eye decided a year ago to use 1996 as the terminal birth year for Millennials for our future work. Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) is considered a Millennial, and anyone born from 1997 onward is office of a new generation.

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

Since the oldest among this ascension generation are only turning 22 this year, and most are all the same in their teens or younger, we hesitated at kickoff to give them a name – Generation Z, the iGeneration and Homelanders were some early candidates. (In our first in-depth expect at this generation, we used the term "post-Millennials" every bit a placeholder.) But over the past year, Gen Z has taken agree in popular culture and journalism. Sources ranging from Merriam-Webster and Oxford to the Urban Dictionary at present include this name for the generation that follows Millennials, and Google Trends information show that "Generation Z" is far outpacing other names in people's searches for information. While there is no scientific process for deciding when a name has stuck, the momentum is clearly backside Gen Z.

Generational cutoff points aren't an exact scientific discipline. They should be viewed primarily as tools, allowing for the kinds of analyses detailed above. But their boundaries are not capricious. Generations are oft considered past their span, merely again in that location 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 between 1965 and 1980). By this definition, both are shorter than the span of the Baby Boomers (19 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 reject in birthrates subsequently 1964.

Different the Boomers, there are no comparably definitive thresholds past which later on 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 define the Millennial generation'southward formative years.

The generations defined

Most Millennials were between the ages of five and 20 when the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook the nation, and many were sometime enough to cover the historical significance of that moment, while well-nigh members of Gen Z have piddling or no memory of the event. Millennials also 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 electric current political environment. 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 start black president. Added to that is the fact that Millennials are the most racially and ethnically diverse adult generation in the nation's history. Nonetheless the next generation – Generation Z – is even more diverse.

Across politics, most Millennials came of age and entered the workforce facing the meridian of an economic recession. As is well documented, many of Millennials' life choices, time to come earnings and entrance to adulthood have been shaped by this recession in a style that may non be the instance for their younger counterparts. The long-term effects of this "irksome start" for Millennials will be a factor in American society for decades.

Engineering, in detail the rapid evolution of how people communicate and interact, is some other generation-shaping consideration. Baby Boomers grew up as television expanded dramatically, changing their lifestyles and connection to the globe in fundamental ways. Generation X grew upward equally the computer revolution was taking concur, and Millennials came of age during the internet explosion.

In this progression, what is unique for Generation Z is that all of the above have been role of their lives from the start. The iPhone launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen Zers were ten. Past the time they were in their teens, the primary means past which young Americans connected with the spider web was through mobile devices, WiFi and loftier-bandwidth cellular service. Social media, constant connectivity and on-demand entertainment and communication are innovations Millennials adapted to as they came of age. For those born after 1996, these are largely assumed.

The implications of growing upward in an "e'er on" technological environment are just 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 historic period in this era. What we don't know is whether these are lasting generational imprints or characteristics of adolescence that will go more muted over the course of their adulthood. Beginning to track this new generation over fourth dimension volition be of meaning importance.

Pew Enquiry Eye is non the first to describe an belittling line between Millennials and the generation to follow them, and many have offered well-reasoned arguments for cartoon that line a few years earlier or subsequently than where nosotros have. Perhaps, equally more data are collected over the years, a clear, atypical depiction will emerge. Nosotros remain open to recalibrating if that occurs. But more than likely the historical, technological, behavioral and attitudinal information will show more of a continuum beyond generations than a threshold. Every bit has been the case in the past, this means that the differences within generations tin can be just as great equally the differences across generations, and the youngest and oldest within a normally 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 diverse and complex groups, not simple caricatures.

In the nearly term, you will see a number of reports and analyses from the Centre that proceed to build on our portfolio of generational research. Today, nosotros issued a report looking – for the first fourth dimension – at how members of Generation Z view some of the key social and political bug facing the nation today and how their views compare with those of older generations. To be certain, the views of this generation are not fully formed and could change considerably as they age and as national and global events intervene. Withal, this early on look provides some compelling clues nigh how Gen Z volition 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 see if the demographic, economic and household dynamics of Millennials continue to stand autonomously from their predecessors. In add-on, we will build on our enquiry on teens' technology utilize by exploring the daily lives, aspirations and pressures today's 13- to 17-year-olds confront as they navigate the teenage years.

Still, nosotros remain cautious about what can be projected onto a generation when they remain so young. Donald Trump may exist the first U.S. president most Gen Zers know equally they turn 18, and just every bit the contrast between George W. Bush and Barack Obama shaped the political fence for Millennials, the current political surround may have a similar consequence on the attitudes and appointment of Gen Z, though how remains a question. As important every bit today'due south news may seem, information technology is more than likely that the technologies, debates and events that will shape Generation Z are nonetheless yet to be known.

We look forward to spending the adjacent few years studying this generation as it enters adulthood. All the while, nosotros'll keep in mind that generations are a lens through which to understand societal change, rather than a characterization with which to oversimplify differences between groups.

Notation: This is an update of a postal service that was originally published March 1, 2018, to announce the Eye's adoption of 1996 every bit an endpoint to births in the Millennial generation.