In recent years, there has been a growing public discussion surrounding “generation wars” and how age groups shape individuals’ thoughts and behaviors. Today, terms like Boomers, Millennials, Gen-Z, and Gen-Alpha are prevalent in culture, each representing distinct generational characteristics. According to the Pew Research Foundation, a generation typically spans 15 to 20 years. Recently, The New York Times introduced a microgeneration within the millennial cohort (1981–1996), termed “peak millennials,” encompassing individuals born in 1990 and 1991. This classification includes those who are currently 34 or 33 years old.
In a recent episode of The New York Times podcast The Daily, host Michael Barbaro discussed with reporter Jeanna Smialek the economic challenges faced by “peak millennials” due to experiencing significant global events at critical junctures in their lives. Jeanna highlighted that “peak millennials” comprise approximately 9.5 million individuals in the USA. She points out that 1990 and 1991 were “two years- the biggest population years” because of a mix of natural population growth and immigration.
She explains that when peak millennials were graduating from school, the world was hit with the Great Recession which lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. During this time, the job market suffered greatly. Many “older people took shelter in colleges and universities to wait out that recession”. This increase in demand made college admissions tougher and more expensive for peak millennials who had just graduated. As a result, many peak millennials took student debt and only got a more competitive job market upon graduating college. This impacted their economic status in the long run.
Jeanna added that when peak millennials entered their early 30s, the pandemic struck, which once again put the world on pause. The pandemic increased housing rates in the USA which made home ownership difficult for those in their early 30s.
She noted that peak millennials show low fertility trends and theories that having fewer kids now would later impact the USA’s social security system when peak millennials retire. Jeanna added, “Fewer kids today means fewer adults in a few decades paying into the Social Security system, which means that we are obviously going to have a lot of peak millennials who are retiring at a time when there are fewer people to pay into the system that will fund that retirement.”
The generations can be broadly classified as:
The Greatest Generation (GI Generation): Born 1901–1927
The Silent Generation: Born 1928–1945
Baby Boom Generation or Boomers: Born 1946–1964
Generation X: Born 1965–1980
Millennial Generation or Generation Y: Born 1981–1996
Generation Z, Gen-Z, or iGen: Born 1997–2010
Generation Alpha: Born Between 2010-2024
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