What is a Millennial?
What is a Millennial anyway?
What years were they born?
This is a pretty tricky question to answer, because everyone has a different opinion on the exact years that begin and end the Millennial generation. I’ve pulled a few reputable sources to see what they have to say.
Carol Phillips of Millennial Marketing, says “Millennials (sometimes called Gen Y) are the generation after Gen X, generally born beginning 1978-1982 and graduating high school around 2000, hence the name. The oldest are 30; the youngest are still in middle school.”
Wikipedia says that “most commentators use birth dates from the mid 1970s to early 1990s inclusive” to define Millennials.
Generations at Work says Millennials are “born from 1980 through 2000.”
The Washington Post says that Millennials are born “between 1982 and 2003.”
The USA Today says “some include those born since 1980; others start with 1982 and go to about 2000.
Most researchers have focused on the “first-wave” millennials — those roughly ages 16 to 25.” And this is what I have to say. Millennials are the generation born beginning 1982 and ending in the year 2000. Now I also agree that there are two “waves” of Millennials. The one my blog focuses on are those between the ages of about 18-27.
So there you have it! If you ever doubted if your age qualifies you to be a Millennial, now you know. And in case you ever doubted that I was a Millennial, I am 22 (born in 1987), so I clearly qualify.
What defines them?
The coolest thing about being a Millennial is that your age is the least important thing that defines you. Millennials have a series of awesome traits that define our entire generation (though of course not every Millennial falls in line with these traits). There is no way I can fit every Millennial trait in this post, and since I post pretty frequently about Millennial characteristics, I’ll just name some of the important ones here.
We are technology. As the first generation to grow up using the internet, we are the most adept at using and creating new technology. Sending texts is second nature to us, and we are constantly trying to teach older generations how to use our technology. Because of technology, our generation is smarter and faster than any other generation, making us extremely important members of society.
We have a different attitude about work. This may be the most “stand-out” trait for Millennials. Unlike generations before us, we just don’t feel the same way about having a job that they do. We seriously believe in work/life balance, and we want to get to the top of our organization. Some critics think this is a bad thing, but Millennials see a challenge.
We care about the world. Millennials are the first generation to be completely informed about topics like global warming. Millennials strongly value the earth and are working toward bettering the environment. Millennials are also the most diverse of any generation, so we care about people too, both in the US and globally.
So there you have it! The answer to all of your Millennial questions. Thank you to all my commenters who encouraged me to write this post. I would love for this to be an ongoing discussion, so please comment and let me know what you think about Millennials.
You have a pretty good blog, although you do use a lot of generalizations when comparing the Millennials. As for the generation time span, I tend to think of it as 1983-1998. I don’t think it’s really possible to have a generation span that lasts for more than 15 years. If you did then the oldest people in the generation would have little to nothing in common with the youngest people. Also, aren’t the Millennials supposed to be a generation that grew up during the 21st Century?
Hi Josh,
I think it’s impossible not to generalize when talking about an entire generation. I do my best to make sure the generalizations I make are based on facts, but obviously there will always be members of a generation that don’t fall in line with the others. What fun would studying a generation be if everyone believed in the same thing anyway? Thanks for stopping by!
I personally think of Gen Y as being those born around 1979-1989 and Millennials being after that. There is certainly some overlap between adjacent generations but I think there are a lot of differences between current 20 somethings and the generation that has just recently or are soon to be graduating high school. Millennials are those who were going to school (middle and high) in the new millennium. I feel that it will still take a few years for us to get a good grasp of what the differences between Gen Y and the Millennials are.
I was born in 1981 and I feel that I certainly fit with Gen Y more then I do Gen X. I work in the web industry and have been on the internet since middle school. I had a computer at home since I was 4 and the internet has very much shaped my interaction with media, especially music. My work history is also very Gen Y where I’ve progressed very quickly in my industry not by paying my dues, but rather by job hopping (I’ve had 6 career jobs in the last 8 years). I think it’s too soon to see how Millennials will be in the workforce since the oldest of them are still probably in college right now.
Andrew, I don’t agree with you. In my opinion, anyone who was a kid during 9/11, let’s just say 14 or less, is for sure a Millennial. I remember 9/11 very well because it was a scary event for an 11 year old to witness. I tend to think of a Millennial as someone that actually grew up in the 2000s and that’s why I typically put the range around 1985-1996. You could add a few years if you want to but I think of 1986-93 as being the core of the Millennials and maybe 1983-98 as being Gen Y.
Just my opinion.
I’m certainly not aiming for scientific classification. I was mostly saying that I felt that Gen Y and Millennials were two separate generations. I lot of people use them interchangeably. I also don’t think that there are hard lines between generations, I feel they probably overlap. Being born in 1981 I could be categorized at either Gen X or Gen Y, but when you see how the generations develop you figure out where you fit. I feel like I’m Gen Y, if you feel you’re a Millennial and that works for you then you’re a Millennial.
I agree that there aren’t hard lines between generations and yes there probably is going to be some overlapping in a generation that can span as much as 25 years.
[...] Y’er, Blake Sunshine, has a special tab on her blog, “The Perrennial Millennial” to deal with the issue, but concludes the answer is fuzzy, somewhere beginning around 1980. [...]
Hmm, recently discussed this in my MBA studies. According to research in our book and the professor, here what I have gathered on generations:
1. Gen X (my group)
2. Gen Y (or Gen Next)
3. Millenials
4. Echo Boomers
* Generations defined at folks entering the workforce (15yrs old) to 27 (so about 12 years)
Millenials are the first generation to take technology for granted (unlike what Blake says, “teach tech”). My 2 cents; Millenials can use tech but have no clue on how it was put together or invent tech. If you look at High Tech Companies and CEOs with “cool” products, they are mostly from prior Gen X or part of Gen X. Apple, Salesforce, Google, folks in their late 30s to late 40s (no Mills there