Generation X

Generation X, often shortened to Gen X, is the demographic cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s as its ending birth years, with the generation generally defined as people born from 1965 to 1980. By this definition and U.S. census data, there are 65.2 million Gen Xers in the United States as of 2019. Most Gen Xers are the children of the Silent Generation and older Baby Boomers, and many are the parents of Generation Z.
As children in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, a time of shifting societal values, Gen Xers were sometimes called the "Latchkey Generation", a reference to their returning as children from school to an empty home and using a key to let themselves in. This was a result of what is now called free-range parenting, increasing divorce rates, and increased maternal participation in the workforce before widespread availability of childcare options outside the home.
As adolescents and young adults in the 1980s and 1990s, Xers were dubbed the "MTV Generation" and sometimes characterized as slackers, cynical, and disaffected. Some of the many cultural influences on Gen X youth included a proliferation of musical genres with strong social-tribal identity, such as dance-pop, punk rock, hip-hop, heavy metal, alternative rock, rave, and grunge. Film was also a notable cultural influence, via both the birth of franchise mega-sequels and a proliferation of independent film. Video games, in both amusement parlors and devices in Western homes, were also a major part of juvenile entertainment for the first time. Politically, Generation X experienced the last days of communism in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries of Central and Eastern Europe, witnessing the transition to capitalism in these regions during their youth. In much of the Western world, a similar time period was defined by a dominance of conservatism and free market economics.
In their midlife during the early 21st century, research describes Gen Xers as active, happy, and achieving a work–life balance. The cohort has also been more broadly described as entrepreneurial and productive in the workplace.

Terminology

The term Generation X has been used at various times to describe alienated youth. In the early 1950s, Hungarian photographer Robert Capa first used Generation X as the title for a photo-essay about young men and women growing up immediately after World War II. The term first appeared in print in a December 1952 issue of Holiday magazine announcing its upcoming publication of Capa's photo-essay. In 1964, Jane Deverson and Charles Hamblett published the book Generation X, about British youth and their culture. From 1976 to 1981, English musician Billy Idol used the term as the name of his punk rock band, as his mother had owned a copy of the 1964 book. These uses of the term appear to have no connection to Capa's photo-essay.
The term gained a modern application after the release of Canadian author Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. The characters in the novel were born in the late 1950s and early 1960s, ironically making them younger baby boomers, or Generation Jones. In 1999, Coupland described his book as being about "the fringe of Generation Jones which became the mainstream of Generation X". In 1987, he had written a piece in Vancouver Magazine titled "Generation X" that was "the seed of what went on to become the book". Coupland initially claimed the term was derived from Billy Idol's band, but in 1995 he denied this connection, saying:

The book's title came not from Billy Idol's band, as many supposed, but from the final chapter of a funny sociological book on American class structure titled Class, by Paul Fussell. In his final chapter, Fussell named an "X" category of people who wanted to hop off the merry-go-round of status, money, and social climbing that so often frames modern existence.

Author William Strauss noted that around the time Coupland's novel was published the symbol "X" was prominent in popular culture, as the film Malcolm X was released in 1992, and that the name "Generation X" stuck. The "X" refers to an unknown variable or to a desire not to be defined. Strauss's coauthor Neil Howe noted the delay in naming this demographic cohort: "Over 30 years after their birthday, they didn't have a name. I think that's germane." Previously, the cohort had been called post-Boomers, Baby Busters, the New Lost Generation, latchkey kids, the MTV Generation, and the 13th Generation.

Date and age range definitions

Generation X is the demographic cohort following the post–World War II baby-boom, representing a generational change from the baby boomers. Many researchers and demographers use dates that correspond to the fertility-patterns in the population. For Generation X, in the U.S., the period begins at a time when fertility rates started to significantly decrease in the mid-1960s, until an upswing in the late 1970s and recovery at the start of the 1980s.
In the U.S., the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank, delineates a Generation X period of 1965–1980 which has gradually gained acceptance in academic circles. Moreover, although fertility rates are preponderant in the definition of start and end dates, the center remarks: "Generations are analytical constructs, it takes time for popular and expert consensus to develop as to the precise boundaries that demarcate one generation from another." Pew takes into account other factors, notably the labor market as well as a group's attitudinal and behavioral trends. Writing for Pew's Trend magazine in 2018, psychologist Jean Twenge observed that the "birth year boundaries of Gen X are debated but settle somewhere around 1965–1980". According to this definition, as of the oldest members of Generation X are and the youngest are.
The Brookings Institution, another U.S. think tank, sets the Gen X period as from 1965 to 1981. The U.S. Federal Reserve Board uses 1965–1980. The U.S. Social Security Administration uses 1965 to 1980. In their 2002 book When Generations Collide, Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman use 1965 to 1980, and in 2012 authors Jain and Pant also used 1965 to 1980. U.S. news outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post describe Generation X as people born between 1965 and 1980. Gallup, Bloomberg, and Forbes use 1965–1980. Time magazine wrote that Generation X is "roughly defined as anyone born between 1965 and 1980".
In Australia, the McCrindle Research Center uses 1965–1979. PricewaterhouseCoopers, a multinational professional services network headquartered in London, describes Generation X employees as those born from 1965 to 1980. In the UK, the Resolution Foundation think tank defines Gen X as those born between 1966 and 1980. In the 2021 census, Statistics Canada defined Generation X as born between 1966 and 1980.

Other age range markers

U.S. authors William Strauss and Neil Howe define Generation X as those born between 1961 and 1981, and divide the cohort into two waves: the "Atari Wave" and "Nintendo Wave". Jeff Gordinier, in his 2008 book X Saves the World, includes those born between 1961 and 1977 but possibly as late as 1980. George Masnick of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies defines this generation as 1965 to 1984 to satisfy the condition that boomers, Xers, and millennials "cover equal 20-year age spans". In 2004, journalist J. Markert acknowledged the 20-year increments but went a step further, dividing the generation into two 10-year cohorts. The first begins in 1966 and ends in 1975 and the second begins in 1976 and ends in 1985; this thinking is applied to each generation.
Based on events of historical importance, Schewe and Noble in 2002 argued that a cohort is formed against significant milestones and can be any length of time. They said Generation X began in 1966 and ended in 1976, with those born between 1955 and 1965 called "trailing-edge boomers". George Barna's 1994 book Baby Busters: The Disillusioned Generation called those born between 1965 and 1983 the "baby busters" generation. In his 1996 book Boom Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift, David Foot describes Generation X as late boomers and includes those born between 1960 and 1966, while the "Bust Generation", those born between 1967 and 1979, is considered a separate generation.

Generational cuspers

People born in the latter half of the Baby Boom, from the early 1960s to the early years of Generation X, are sometimes called Generation Jones. People born in the Generation X / millennial cusp years of the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s are sometimes called Xennials. Other names include the Star Wars Generation, Generation Catalano, and the Oregon Trail Generation. These "microgenerations" share characteristics of both generations.

Demographics

United States

There are differences in Gen X population numbers depending on the date-range selected. In the U.S., using Census population projections, the Pew Research Center found that the Gen X population born from 1965 to 1980 numbered 65.2 million in 2019. The cohort is likely to overtake Boomers in 2028. A 2010 Census report counted approximately 84 million people living in the US who are defined by birth years ranging from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. Numerous other pieces of information, however, show the Generation X cohort were born from 1966 to 1981.
In a 2012 article for the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, George Masnick wrote that the "Census counted 82.1 million" Gen Xers in the U.S. Masnick concluded that immigration filled in any birth year deficits during low fertility years of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jon Miller at the Longitudinal Study of American Youth at the University of Michigan wrote that "Generation X refers to adults born between 1961 and 1981" and it "includes 84 million people". In their 1991 book Generations, authors Howe and Strauss indicated that the total number of Gen X individuals in the U.S. was 88.5 million.