Gen Beta, short for Generation Beta, is the generation born from 2025 to 2039. The first members arrived on 1 January 2025 and the last will be born on 31 December 2039. They follow Generation Alpha (2013 to 2024 on this site) and come before whatever the group born from 2040 ends up being called.
Gen Beta at a glance
Fact | Generation Beta |
|---|---|
Born | 2025 to 2039 |
Length | 15 years |
Comes after | Generation Alpha (2013 to 2024) |
Named by | Mark McCrindle, McCrindle Research |
Age in 2026 | 0 or 1 |
Projected size | about 2.1 billion people |
Share of the world in 2035 | about 16% (McCrindle projection) |
Mostly born to | Millennials and Gen Z |
The size and share figures are projections reported from McCrindle's research, not counts. Births change every year, so treat them as estimates.
Who named Generation Beta?
The name comes from Mark McCrindle, an Australian social researcher whose firm, McCrindle Research, also named Generation Alpha. When Alpha closed at the end of 2024, he moved to the next letter of the Greek alphabet. McCrindle's own guide defines the group as "those born from 2025 to 2039".
The name is a convention, not an official label. No government or statistics office decides generation names. Other researchers draw the line elsewhere. Wikipedia lists the World Economic Forum using 2022 to 2038, the Annie E. Casey Foundation starting in 2026 and the psychologist Jean Twenge starting in 2030. Most news coverage in 2025 used McCrindle's 2025 to 2039.
Why 15 years? McCrindle gives Generation Alpha the same length. The older generations are less tidy. Pew Research Center's Baby Boomers span 19 years (1946 to 1964), Gen X 16 years and Millennials 16 years.
The first Gen Beta babies
The first members were born in the opening minutes of 2025, in whichever time zone reached midnight first. Many countries reported their own first baby of the year. In India, news outlets named Frankie Remruatdika Zadeng, born at 12:03 a.m. on 1 January 2025 at Synod Hospital in Durtlang, Aizawl, in the state of Mizoram, as the country's first Generation Beta baby.
How many babies join each year? Our World in Data, using United Nations estimates, puts global births at about 132 million in 2025. At that rate, 15 years of births comes to roughly two billion people, which is in line with McCrindle's projection of 2.1 billion.
How old is Gen Beta?
The oldest members turn 1 during 2026. Most of them will still be under 18 in 2050. This table shows the age range of the whole group in years people often ask about.
Year | Youngest | Oldest |
|---|---|---|
2026 | not born yet | 1 |
2030 | not born yet | 5 |
2035 | not born yet | 10 |
2039 | newborn | 14 |
2043 | 4 | 18 |
2057 | 18 | 32 |
2070 | 31 | 45 |
2100 | 61 | 75 |
The 2100 row explains a line that appears in almost every article on this generation: many members are expected to see the 22nd century, which starts on 1 January 2101. Someone born in 2030 would be 71 that day.
For any single birth date, the Age Calculator gives the exact age in years, months and days.
Milestones by year
These dates are simple arithmetic from the birth years, so they hold whatever the group ends up being like.
Milestone | First members | Last members |
|---|---|---|
Turn 5 | 2030 | 2044 |
Turn 13 (teenagers) | 2038 | 2052 |
Turn 18 | 2043 | 2057 |
Turn 21 | 2046 | 2060 |
Turn 30 | 2055 | 2069 |
Turn 65 | 2090 | 2104 |
So the first Beta teenagers arrive in 2038, the first adults in 2043, and the youngest members will still be in their twenties in the 2060s. If you want to count down to a specific child's next birthday, the Birthday Countdown does it to the minute.
Who are Gen Beta's parents?
Most of these children will have Millennial or Gen Z parents. Millennials were born from 1981 to 1996, so in 2025 they were between 29 and 44. Gen Z, born from 1997 to 2012, were 13 to 28. The older half of Gen Z has reached the age when many people have their first child.
A few will have Gen X parents, and as the years pass more will have Gen Alpha parents. By 2039 the oldest Gen Alpha members will be 26. That makes this the first generation where some children and their parents could both have been named by the same researcher.
What will shape Generation Beta?
Nobody knows yet what defines a group that is barely a year old. Commentators so far point to things that are already true when these children are born:
They will not remember a world without generative AI tools, which spread widely from late 2022.
Many of their parents grew up with smartphones and social media.
McCrindle projects that cities will hold a larger share of the world's people while they grow up, about 58% by 2040 according to the figures Wikipedia reports.
These are reasonable guesses, not findings. Generation labels usually get their meaning from shared events in the teenage and early adult years. For this group those years start around 2038.
Gen Beta compared with Gen Alpha and Gen Z
Gen Z | Gen Alpha | Gen Beta | |
|---|---|---|---|
Born | 1997-2012 | 2013-2024 | 2025-2039 |
Age in 2026 | 13-29 | 1-13 | 0-1 |
Parents mostly | Gen X | Millennials | Millennials and Gen Z |
Named by | popular use | McCrindle | McCrindle |
Turns 18 | 2015-2030 | 2031-2042 | 2043-2057 |
Our full chart, with every generation since 1901, is in Generations by Year. The oldest living group, the Silent Generation, was born almost a century before the first Beta babies.
Is "Beta" an insult?
Some parents dislike the name because "beta" is also internet slang for someone weak or passive. That is a fair point, and it is one reason a different label could still win. Generation names are decided by use. "Millennial" beat "Generation Y" the same way, by being the word people used.
What years are Gen Beta?
Everyone born from 2025 to 2039, using the dates from McCrindle Research, which named the group.
Is a baby born in 2026 Gen Beta?
Yes. Every baby born in 2025 or 2026, and up to the end of 2039, is part of Generation Beta.
Is 2024 Gen Alpha or Gen Beta?
Gen Alpha. Generation Beta starts with babies born on or after 1 January 2025.
What generation comes after Gen Beta?
Following the Greek alphabet, the next group would be Generation Gamma, starting in 2040. That name is not settled yet.
Who are Gen Beta's parents?
Mostly Millennials (born 1981-1996) and Gen Z (born 1997-2012), with Gen Alpha parents becoming more common in the 2030s.
How many people will be in Gen Beta?
McCrindle projects about 2.1 billion, around 16% of the world's population by 2035. This is a projection, not a count.
When will the first Generation Beta members turn 18?
In 2043. The youngest members, born in 2039, turn 18 in 2057.
Why is it called Generation Beta?
Beta is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. It follows Generation Alpha, the first generation named with a Greek letter.
Sources
Generation Beta: the complete guide, McCrindle Research (birth years)
Generation Beta, Wikipedia (other definitions, size and urbanisation projections, naming)
Births and deaths, Our World in Data (global births in 2025)
India welcomes its first Generation Beta baby, Adda247, January 2025
Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins, Pew Research Center, 2019 (Boomer, Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z years)
