Generation finder
Type a birth year to see whether you are a Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z or another generation, the years it spans and where that range comes from.
Runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Type your birth year.
- Read the generation, its span of birth years and the source of that range.
How it works
The year is matched against a fixed table of ranges. For Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z the table follows Pew Research Center: 1946 to 1964, 1965 to 1980, 1981 to 1996 and 1997 to 2012. The Lost (1883 to 1900), Greatest (1901 to 1927), Silent (1928 to 1945), Alpha (2013 to 2024) and Beta (2025 to 2039) ranges are widely used in articles and marketing, and are marked as such in the result.
Worked example
Born in 1990: 1990 lies between 1981 and 1996, so you are a Millennial under Pew’s definition, in a generation 16 years wide. Born in 2005: Generation Z (1997 to 2012).
Tips
- Use the birth year of the group you study, not the survey year, when you segment an audience by generation.
- Quote the source of the cut-offs when you publish a figure by generation, because other sources differ by a year or two.
Frequently asked questions
Who decides where a generation starts and ends?
Nobody officially. Researchers such as Pew Research Center set their own cut-offs so that surveys compare the same groups. Pew defines Baby Boomers as born 1946 to 1964, Gen X 1965 to 1980, Millennials 1981 to 1996 and Gen Z 1997 to 2012.
Why do other sources give different years?
Generations are labels for shared experiences, not scientific categories, so authors draw lines differently. Some place the Millennial start at 1980 or the Gen Z start at 1995. This tool uses one consistent set of ranges.
Where do the Silent, Greatest and Alpha ranges come from?
They are commonly used ranges rather than ones this tool takes from Pew, and the result says so. Generation Alpha is often given as 2013 to 2024, and Generation Beta as 2025 to 2039.
Am I a cusper if I was born near a boundary?
People born within a few years of a cut-off are sometimes called cuspers and may identify with either neighbour. The label is a broad description, not a fact about any single person.