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

Generations provide the opportunity to await at Americans both by their place in the life wheel – whether a young developed, a centre-aged parent or a retiree – and by their membership in a cohort of individuals who were built-in 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 fourth dimension. They tin provide a way to understand how different formative experiences (such equally earth events and technological, economic and social shifts) interact with the life-cycle and aging process to shape people'south 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'southward older adults felt nearly a given issue when they themselves were young, as well every bit to depict how the trajectory of views might differ beyond generations.

Pew Research Center has been studying the Millennial generation for more than a decade. But by 2018, information technology became clear to us that it was time to determine a cutoff point between Millennials and the next generation. Turning 38 this year, the oldest Millennials are well into machismo, and they first entered adulthood before today's youngest adults were born.

In order to keep the Millennial generation analytically meaningful, and to begin looking at what might exist unique about the adjacent cohort, Pew Research Center decided a year ago to use 1996 as the final birth year for Millennials for our future piece of 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 rising generation are merely turning 22 this year, and most are still in their teens or younger, we hesitated at showtime to give them a name – Generation Z, the iGeneration and Homelanders were some early candidates. (In our first in-depth wait at this generation, we used the term "post-Millennials" every bit a placeholder.) But over the by year, Gen Z has taken concord in popular civilisation and journalism. Sources ranging from Merriam-Webster and Oxford to the Urban Lexicon now include this proper noun for the generation that follows Millennials, and Google Trends data bear witness that "Generation Z" is far outpacing other names in people'southward searches for data. While at that place is no scientific procedure 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 exist viewed primarily as tools, allowing for the kinds of analyses detailed above. Only their boundaries are not capricious. Generations are often considered by their span, just again in that location is no agreed upon formula for how long that span should exist. At 16 years (1981 to 1996), our working definition of Millennials is equivalent in age span to their preceding generation, Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980). By this definition, both are shorter than the bridge of the Baby Boomers (19 years) – the merely generation officially designated by the U.S. Demography Bureau, based on the famous surge in mail service-WWII births in 1946 and a pregnant decline in birthrates later on 1964.

Unlike the Boomers, there are no comparably definitive thresholds by which subsequently generational boundaries are defined. Only for analytical purposes, we believe 1996 is a meaningful cutoff between Millennials and Gen Z for a number of reasons, including key political, economic and social factors that define the Millennial generation's formative years.

The generations defined

Most Millennials were between the ages of 5 and 20 when the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook the nation, and many were one-time enough to cover the historical significance of that moment, while most members of Gen Z accept little or no memory of the event. Millennials also grew upward 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 electric current political environment. And most Millennials were between 12 and 27 during the 2008 ballot, where the strength of the youth vote became role of the political conversation and helped elect the first black president. Added to that is the fact that Millennials are the nearly racially and ethnically diverse developed generation in the nation's history. Yet the next generation – Generation Z – is even more various.

Beyond politics, almost Millennials came of age and entered the workforce facing the meridian of an economical recession. As is well documented, many of Millennials' life choices, future earnings and entrance to adulthood have been shaped by this recession in a way that may not be the case for their younger counterparts. The long-term effects of this "wearisome offset" for Millennials will be a factor in American society for decades.

Engineering science, in particular the rapid evolution of how people communicate and interact, is another generation-shaping consideration. Baby Boomers grew upward as television expanded dramatically, changing their lifestyles and connection to the world in fundamental ways. Generation Ten grew upwardly as the computer revolution was taking hold, 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 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 young Americans connected with the web was through mobile devices, WiFi and loftier-bandwidth cellular service. Social media, abiding connectivity and on-need entertainment and advice are innovations Millennials adapted to equally they came of age. For those born after 1996, these are largely assumed.

The implications of growing upward in an "always on" technological environment are but at present coming into focus. Contempo research has shown dramatic shifts in youth behaviors, attitudes and lifestyles – both positive and apropos – 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 will get more muted over the grade of their adulthood. Kickoff to rails this new generation over time volition be of significant importance.

Pew Inquiry Center is non the first to describe 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 before or after than where nosotros have. Perhaps, every bit more data are collected over the years, a articulate, singular depiction will emerge. We remain open to recalibrating if that occurs. But more likely the historical, technological, behavioral and attitudinal information will prove more of a continuum across generations than a threshold. Equally has been the example in the past, this means that the differences within generations can be only as smashing equally the differences across generations, and the youngest and oldest within a ordinarily defined cohort may feel more than in mutual with bordering generations than the ane to which they are assigned. This is a reminder that generations themselves are inherently diverse and circuitous groups, not simple caricatures.

In the near term, you will run across a number of reports and analyses from the Centre that go on to build on our portfolio of generational research. Today, we issued a written report looking – for the first fourth dimension – 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 not fully formed and could change considerably as they age and every bit national and global events arbitrate. However, this early look provides some compelling clues most how Gen Z will help shape the futurity political landscape.

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 apart from their predecessors. In improver, we will build on our inquiry on teens' technology utilise by exploring the daily lives, aspirations and pressures today's 13- to 17-year-olds face up as they navigate the teenage years.

Yet, we remain cautious most what tin be projected onto a generation when they remain and so immature. Donald Trump may be the first U.South. president most Gen Zers know as they turn 18, and just as the contrast betwixt George W. Bush and Barack Obama shaped the political argue for Millennials, the electric current political surroundings may have a similar issue on the attitudes and engagement of Gen Z, though how remains a question. As important as today'southward news may seem, it is more than likely that the technologies, debates and events that will shape Generation Z are still yet to be known.

We expect forward to spending the next few years studying this generation as it enters machismo. All the while, we'll keep in listen that generations are a lens through which to empathise societal alter, rather than a label with which to oversimplify differences between groups.

Note: This is an update of a post that was originally published March 1, 2018, to announce the Center's adoption of 1996 as an endpoint to births in the Millennial generation.