Millennials

Millennials, also known as Generation Y (or simply Gen Y), are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z.

Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years, with 1981 to 1996 being a widely accepted defining range for the generation.[1] Most millennials are the children of baby boomers and early Gen Xers;[2] millennials are often the parents of Generation Alpha.[3]

Across the globe, young people are markedly less keen on getting married.[4] In fact, millennials were born at a time of declining fertility rates around the world,[5] and are themselves having fewer children than their predecessors,[6][7][8][9] though those in developing nations will continue to constitute the bulk of global population growth.[10]

In the developed world, young people of the 2010s were less inclined to have sexual intercourse compared to their predecessors when they were at the same age.[11] In the West, they are less likely to be religious than their predecessors,[5][12] but they may still be spiritual.[13]

This generation is generally marked by elevated usage of and familiarity with the Internet, mobile devices, and social media,[14] which is why they are sometimes termed digital natives.[15] Between the 1990s and the 2010s, people from the developing world became increasingly well educated, a factor that boosted economic growth in these countries.[16]

Nevertheless, the Great Recession and COVID-19 recession have had a major impact on millennials because they have caused historically high levels of unemployment among young people.[17] In general, economic growth and youth unemployment are negatively correlated, meaning young workers have it worse than their elders during a recession.[18]