A reader asks: I keep hearing about Millennials, Gen Y and Echo Boomers. The topic of the day seems to be how the work force is shifting to make way for these new corporate arrivals. Why is this suddenly such a big issue? Why all the hype?

Even researchers bring in experts sometimes. So without further ado, here is the answer submitted by generational theory expert, Jessie Newburn.

There certainly is a lot of hype, and with good reason. Every time a new generation moves into their late teen and early young adulthood years, they shift the culture as they do so. Millennials are doing this now. Unfortunately, most of the “facts” floating around – even from the most credible of national news sources — are mostly inaccurate.

There’s a field of study called generational theory. It speaks to the peer personalities and archetypal life experiences of groups of people moving through time. The core source for this information is two academics: William Strauss and Neil Howe. Together, they’ve written some well-received books on the subject including Generations, Millennials Rising and The Fourth Turning. In their work, they define generational birth years by life experiences and not by the dates typically offered by U.S. demographers. The years Strauss and Howe use will probably strike you as “not true.” But here they are: Boomers are born 1943–1960. GenX are born 1961–1981. Millennials are born 1982–2002ish. Anything else is really a discussion of demographics, which is quite different than discussing generations.

What will probably shock you even more is this simple data, vetted by 2005 U.S. Census information. GenX is currently the largest generation, weighing in at 82 million Americans. Millennials are next at 79.2 million; Boomers are third, at 64.6 million; the Silent (born 1925–1942) are 33.2 million in size. The end-year for Millennials isn’t determined yet, though it is known that the newest generation is already being born. This new batch is called the Homeland Generation, and they are most likely to be a small generation, just like the Silent Gen was.

So there you have it: Facts that fly in the face of most everything you’ll ever read or hear about American generations. Me? I’ll pick data over hype any day.

Submitted by
JessieX
Generational consultant, speaker and purist.
www.jessienewburn.com