Millennials Defined: Born Between 1981 and 1996
ALEXANDRIA, VA–The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends, announced March 1 that going forward, it would be defining millennials as those born between the years 1981 and 1996 ― in other words, those ages 22 to 37 this year.
Michael Dimock, president of the Pew Research Center, wrote in a release that it became clear that “it’s time to determine a cutoff point between millennials and the next generation.”
They settled on 1996 as the last year “for a number of reasons, including key political, economic and social factors that define the millennial generation’s formative years.”
Pew lists being old enough to have comprehended the significance of the Sept. 11 attacks, being of age during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and entering the workforce during the 2007 global recession as markers of a millennial.
Researchers haven’t agreed on a name for the post-millennial generation yet, although they’re often called Generation Z.