What years are Gen Z, baby boomers, millennials, Gen X? What to know

A teenager looks away in frustration as his mother lectures him [File, the Standard]

You have probably heard people categorising themselves as part of a certain generation group.

Pew Research Center places value on it, saying that it is a way of understanding how global events and technological, economic and social changes interact to define the way a set of people see the world.

But where do the age groups belong?

Generation X

According to Britannica, the term describes generation of people born between 1965 and 1980.

"Gen Xers are typically described as being resourceful, independent, and keen on maintaining work-life balance," Britannica, a British-American company known for publishing the Encyclopedia Britannica, says.

Baby boomers

The term "baby boomers" is used to describe a person born between 1946 and 1964.

Baby boomers are the generation of people born after the World War II, when the birth rate spiked.

"Members of the large generation born between these years are more downbeat about their lives than are adults who are younger or older," Pew Research Center says.
Millennials.

According to Pew Research Center, anyone born between 1981 and 1996 is considered a millennial.

Research suggests that the millennials got the name because they became adults around the millennium (2000).

Gen Z

Gen Zs consist of people born between 1997 and 2012. They follow on the heels of the millennials, Pew Research Center says.

"Gen Zers are progressive and pro-government, most see the country's growing racial and ethnic diversity as a good thing, and they're less likely than older generations to see the United States as superior to other nations," a research by Pew Research Center says.

Generation Alpha

The current generation of people born from 2012 to 2024 are described by The Atlantic as Generation Alpha.

These generation has been born during the digital era.

According to the Understanding Generation Alpha Study by Wired Consulting "as technology develops, artificial intelligence or voice will become increasingly common methods of communication between humans and machines, as keyboards and screens give way to gesture-based interfaces and conversations between devices and humans".