Who Are Millennials?

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From older generations to actual millennials, there seems to be a lot of confusion about who is considered a millennial. We did a little digging and here’s what we found:

The Atlantic did a bit of investigating and found four things:

The Census Bureau only defines baby boomers (1946-1964)
“History isn’t always so punctuated.” – Tom DiPrete, Sociology Professor at Columbia U
It is difficult to identify generations outside of baby boomers
Millennials, according to Strauss and Howe*, range from 1982-2004

*These historians coined the term in 1991.

The UN clarifies the time frame for generations:

Traditionalists (1925-1945)
Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
Generation X (1965-1980)
Millennials (1981-2000)

Merriam-Webster states that a millennial is a person born in the 1980s-1990s.

Google defined a millennial as a person reaching young adulthood (also an age ranging word, given the definition for other generations I would think this range begins around the age of 8 or 11).

Our thoughts:

Pop culture and technology seem to play a large role on our adolescent and adult years. Most media outlets began to recognize young adults as a viable audience around 1979 and beyond.

Those born after 1994 seem to have a very different experience during their adolescence and young adulthood. The max for the millennial time frame should definitely be 1999. Also, millennials may be more accurately described as a sub-category of generation y.

From the sources (above as well as others) and my experience interacting with individuals of varying generations, it seems safe to conclude that Millennials range from 1980-1994, with 1979 being the absolute earliest and 1999 the cut off.