The generations by birth year are: the Greatest Generation (1901-1927), the Silent Generation (1928-1945), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), Millennials (1981-1996), Generation Z (1997-2012), Generation Alpha (2013-2024) and Generation Beta (2025-2039). The Boomer to Gen Z ranges come from Pew Research Center. Gen Alpha and Gen Beta are names chosen by the Australian researcher Mark McCrindle.
Generations by birth year at a glance
Generation | Born | Age in 2026 | Other names |
|---|---|---|---|
Greatest Generation | 1901-1927 | 98 and older | GI Generation |
Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 80-98 | Traditionalists |
Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 61-80 | Boomers |
Generation X | 1965-1980 | 45-61 | Gen X |
Millennials | 1981-1996 | 29-45 | Gen Y |
Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 13-29 | Gen Z, Zoomers |
Generation Alpha | 2013-2024 | 1-13 | Gen Alpha |
Generation Beta | 2025-2039 | Under 2 | Gen Beta |
The age column gives the youngest and oldest a person in that group can be at some point in 2026. Someone born in December 1996 is 29 before their birthday and 30 after it, so the edges overlap by a year.
Who decides the years?
Nobody owns these labels. There is no government list and no official start date for most of them. The ranges people quote today mostly come from two places.
Pew Research Center, a US research group, set the ranges for Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z in 2019. Its president, Michael Dimock, explained the choice in a short article that is widely quoted. Pew picked 1996 as the last Millennial year because of shared experience. Most Millennials were between 5 and 20 during the 9/11 attacks, and most of them started work around the 2008 recession.
McCrindle Research in Australia named Generation Alpha and Generation Beta. McCrindle dates Gen Beta from 2025 to 2039, which is 15 years, the same length it uses for Gen Alpha.
Why sources disagree by a year or two
You will see Gen Z start in 1995, 1996 or 1997, and Gen Alpha start in 2010 or 2013. Each researcher draws the line where the shared events fit their data best.
The biggest gap is Gen Alpha. McCrindle starts it in 2010, the same year the iPad launched. Pew ends Gen Z in 2012. If you follow Pew for Gen Z, Gen Alpha has to begin in 2013, which is the convention our calculator uses. Both are reasonable. Neither is an official border.
The generations, one by one
Greatest Generation (1901-1927)
These people grew up in the Great Depression and fought or worked through World War II. The name comes from the journalist Tom Brokaw's 1998 book "The Greatest Generation". Anyone in this group is at least 98 in 2026.
Silent Generation (1928-1945)
A small generation, because birth rates fell during the Depression and the war. They were children or teenagers in the war years and young adults in the 1950s.
Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
The name describes the jump in births after World War II ended. Boomers are the only group in this list with a range that almost every source agrees on. In 2026 they are between 61 and 80.
Generation X (1965-1980)
Gen X grew up as the birth rate fell again, often in homes where both parents worked. They were the first to grow up with personal computers at home or at school.
Millennials (1981-1996)
Also called Gen Y, because they followed Gen X. Most Millennials remember the 9/11 attacks and started working around the 2008 financial crisis. The oldest turn 45 in 2026.
Generation Z (1997-2012)
The first generation to have smartphones and social media from childhood. Pew used that difference, and the fact that most of Gen Z has little or no memory of 9/11, to separate them from Millennials.
Generation Alpha (2013-2024)
Mostly the children of Millennials. They are growing up with tablets, voice assistants and AI chat tools as ordinary household objects. In 2026 the oldest are teenagers.
Generation Beta (2025-2039)
The newest generation started on 1 January 2025. Most Gen Beta children will have Millennial or Gen Z parents. Babies born in 2026 are Gen Beta.
Cusp years and informal labels
If you were born within a year or two of a boundary, you share traits with both groups. People born around 1996 and 1997 often call themselves Zillennials, and people born in the late 1970s and early 1980s sometimes use Xennials. These names are popular but have no agreed start or end years, so treat them as nicknames.
The What Generation Am I calculator flags these cusp years for you.
How to work out your generation
Find your birth year. Only the year matters, not the day.
Find the row in the table above whose range includes that year.
To see how old you are exactly, use the Age Calculator. To go the other way, from an age to a birth year, use the Date of Birth Calculator.
What generation is 2026?
Babies born in 2026 are Generation Beta, the cohort McCrindle dates from 2025 to 2039.
What generation is 2000?
Someone born in 2000 is Generation Z, which Pew dates from 1997 to 2012.
What generation is 1995?
1995 falls in the Millennial range (1981-1996). Because it is close to the Gen Z boundary, some people born that year identify as Zillennials.
What generation is 1980?
1980 is the last year of Generation X under Pew's ranges.
What comes after Gen Z?
Generation Alpha (2013-2024 by Pew's Gen Z end date, or 2010-2024 by McCrindle), then Generation Beta from 2025.
Are generation years official?
No. Only the Baby Boomer range is widely agreed. The others are conventions set by researchers such as Pew Research Center and McCrindle, and they differ by a year or two.
Sources
Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins, Pew Research Center, 2019
Generation Beta: the complete guide, McCrindle Research
