What Generation Am I?
Type the year you were born and see exactly which generation you belong to — Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z, Alpha or one of the others — where you sit inside it, and whether you were born on the cusp between two. Born near a line? One optional question helps settle which side you really belong on.
Generation lines are not official and different researchers draw them a year or two apart. This tool uses the birth-year ranges most widely cited in the US — Boomers 1946–1964, Gen X 1965–1980, Millennials 1981–1996, Gen Z 1997–2012 — with Gen Alpha from 2013 and Gen Beta from 2025. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere or stored.
Common Questions About Generations
What are the generation years for each generation?
The ranges most widely cited in the United States, largely following the Pew Research Center, are these. The Greatest Generation was born from 1901 to 1927, and the Silent Generation from 1928 to 1945. Baby Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964, Generation X from 1965 to 1980, and Millennials from 1981 to 1996. Generation Z runs from 1997 to 2012. After that the lines are newer and less settled: Generation Alpha is usually given as the early 2010s to 2024, and Generation Beta begins with children born in 2025. None of these dates is official. There is no government body or international standard behind them, which is why one article will tell you Gen X ends in 1979 and another says 1980. The ranges are a shared shorthand for people who grew up with roughly the same events, technology and economy at roughly the same age, and they work best as a starting point rather than a hard border.
Am I a Millennial or Gen Z if I was born in 1996 or 1997?
By the most common definition, 1996 is the last Millennial year and 1997 is the first Gen Z year. But people born from about 1994 to 1998 often feel they belong to neither group completely, and the informal name for them is Zillennials. The difference usually comes down to technology and timing rather than the calendar. Many people on this cusp remember a family computer and a flip phone before their first smartphone, and got their first social media account in their teens rather than their childhood. Someone born in 1995 who did not own a smartphone until university may well recognise more of themselves in Millennial descriptions, while someone born in the same year with an older sibling’s phone at twelve may feel closer to Gen Z. That is why the calculator above includes an optional question about the first phone you remember: for people on a generation line, it is often a better tiebreaker than the date.
What is a Xennial?
A Xennial is someone born on the border between Generation X and the Millennials, roughly from the late 1970s to the very early 1980s. The term became popular in the mid-2010s to describe a micro-generation that had an analogue childhood and a digital adulthood. Xennials typically grew up with landlines, cassette tapes and paper maps, met the internet as teenagers or young adults, and got their first mobile phone after they had already left school. That combination tends to produce a mix of Gen X habits, such as a certain independence and scepticism, and Millennial ones, such as being completely at home online. It is not an official category any more than Gen X itself is, but a lot of people born in those years say it describes them better than either neighbour. Similar in-between groups exist at other boundaries too: Generation Jones for late Boomers, and Zillennials between Millennials and Gen Z.
Who decides the names and dates of generations?
Nobody officially. Generation labels come from a mix of journalists, authors, marketers and researchers, and they stick when enough people start using them. Baby Boomer grew out of the measurable spike in births after the Second World War, and the US Census Bureau does use 1946 to 1964 for that group, which makes it the most firmly anchored label. Generation X was popularised by Douglas Coupland’s 1991 novel of that name. The Silent Generation got its name from a 1951 Time magazine essay, the Greatest Generation from Tom Brokaw’s 1998 book, and Generation Alpha and Beta from the Australian researcher Mark McCrindle. Organisations such as Pew Research Center then pick cut-off years so they can compare groups consistently in surveys. Because different researchers choose slightly different cut-offs, the boundaries can shift by a year or two depending on whom you read. The middle of each generation is very stable; it is only the edges that move.
What generation am I if I was born in 2000 or 2010?
Anyone born in 2000 or 2010 is Generation Z under the most common definition, which runs from 1997 to 2012. Someone born in 2000 sits in the early part of Gen Z: old enough to remember the arrival of the smartphone, but young enough that social media was part of their teenage years. Someone born in 2010 is in the late part of the generation and has had touchscreens around for as long as they can remember, which is why some researchers who start Generation Alpha in 2010 would place them there instead. Births from 2013 through 2024 are generally counted as Generation Alpha, and babies born from 2025 onward are the first of Generation Beta. If you want the exact answer for your own birth year, including where you fall inside your generation and whether you were born on a cusp between two, type the year into the free generation calculator at the top of this page and it will show you in a couple of seconds.