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

Generations provide the opportunity to look at Americans both by their place in the life cycle – whether a immature adult, a middle-aged 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 Heart

As 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 sympathise how different determinative experiences (such as world events and technological, economic and social shifts) interact with the life-cycle and aging process to shape people's views of the globe. While younger and older adults may differ in their views at a given moment, generational cohorts let researchers to examine how today's older adults felt about a given issue when they themselves were young, as well as to draw how the trajectory of views might differ across generations.

Pew Research Eye has been studying the Millennial generation for more than a decade. But by 2018, it became articulate to us that it was fourth dimension to determine a cutoff point betwixt Millennials and the next generation. Turning 38 this year, the oldest Millennials are well into adulthood, and they kickoff entered machismo before today'southward youngest adults were born.

In lodge to keep the Millennial generation analytically meaningful, and to brainstorm looking at what might be unique about the next cohort, Pew Enquiry Heart decided a twelvemonth ago to employ 1996 as the final nativity 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 amongst this ascension generation are just turning 22 this yr, and well-nigh 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 offset in-depth expect at this generation, we used the term "post-Millennials" every bit a placeholder.) But over the past yr, Gen Z has taken agree in pop culture 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 show that "Generation Z" is far outpacing other names in people'south searches for information. While there is no scientific process for deciding when a proper name has stuck, the momentum is clearly behind Gen Z.

Generational cutoff points aren't an verbal science. They should be viewed primarily as tools, allowing for the kinds of analyses detailed higher up. Just their boundaries are not arbitrary. Generations are oft considered past their span, but once more at that place 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 between 1965 and 1980). Past this definition, both are shorter than the span of the Baby Boomers (xix years) – the just generation officially designated by the U.South. Census Agency, based on the famous surge in post-WWII births in 1946 and a significant decline in birthrates after 1964.

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

The generations defined

Nearly Millennials were between the ages of 5 and 20 when the ix/xi terrorist attacks shook the nation, and many were onetime enough to comprehend the historical significance of that moment, while well-nigh members of Gen Z have little or no retentivity 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 environment. And most Millennials were between 12 and 27 during the 2008 ballot, 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 most racially and ethnically diverse adult generation in the nation'due south history. Yet the next generation – Generation Z – is even more than diverse.

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

Engineering science, in item the rapid evolution of how people communicate and collaborate, is another generation-shaping consideration. Baby Boomers grew up every bit television expanded dramatically, changing their lifestyles and connection to the world in key means. Generation X grew upwards 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 accept been part of their lives from the start. The iPhone launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen Zers were ten. By the time they were in their teens, the principal means by which young 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 built-in after 1996, these are largely assumed.

The implications of growing up in an "always on" technological environment are only now coming into focus. Recent inquiry 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 will become more muted over the form of their adulthood. Outset to track this new generation over time will exist of meaning importance.

Pew Enquiry Heart is not the first to draw an belittling 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 subsequently than where nosotros have. Perhaps, as more information are collected over the years, a clear, singular delineation volition emerge. We remain open to recalibrating if that occurs. But more than 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 example in the by, this means that the differences within generations can be just every bit great every bit the differences beyond generations, and the youngest and oldest within a usually defined cohort may feel more 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, non simple caricatures.

In the nigh term, y'all will see a number of reports and analyses from the Center that proceed to build on our portfolio of generational enquiry. Today, we issued a report looking – for the first time – 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 non fully formed and could change considerably as they age and as national and global events intervene. Even and then, this early look provides some compelling clues most how Gen Z will aid shape the time to come political landscape.

In the coming weeks, nosotros will exist releasing demographic analyses that compare Millennials to previous generations at the same stage in their life cycle to see if the demographic, economical and household dynamics of Millennials go on to stand apart from their predecessors. In addition, we will build on our enquiry on teens' applied science utilize by exploring the daily lives, aspirations and pressures today'due south 13- to 17-year-olds confront as they navigate the teenage years.

Nevertheless, we remain cautious near what tin can exist projected onto a generation when they remain then young. Donald Trump may be the first U.Southward. president well-nigh Gen Zers know as they plough 18, and only as the contrast between George W. Bush and Barack Obama shaped the political debate for Millennials, the current political environs may have a like event on the attitudes and appointment of Gen Z, though how remains a question. As important as today's news may seem, it is more than than probable that the technologies, debates and events that will shape Generation Z are still yet to be known.

We expect forward to spending the side by side few years studying this generation every bit it enters adulthood. All the while, nosotros'll keep in heed that generations are a lens through which to understand societal modify, rather than a label with which to oversimplify differences between groups.

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