Generation X

Overview

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 millennials, Generation Z and older Generation Alpha. As children in the 1970s and 1980s, 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. Video games, via both arcades and home consoles, were also a major part of childhood entertainment for the first time among Xers. As adolescents and young adults in the 1980s and 1990s, Xers were dubbed the "MTV Generation" (a reference to the music video channel) 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, new wave, 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 (enabled in part by video). 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 (later called the Silent Generation). 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 (who were older baby boomers at the time) and their culture. From 1976 to 1981, English musician Billy Idol (himself a younger boomer) 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 (which refers to the drop in birth rates after the baby boom in the western world, particularly in the U.S.), the New Lost Generation, latchkey kids, the MTV Generation, and the 13th Generation (the 13th generation since American independence).

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. (and broadly, in the Western world), the period begins at a time when fertility rates started to significantly decrease in the mid-1960s (due to increased access to birth control), 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 2026 the oldest members of Generation X are 61 and the youngest are 45.

Various media outlets, think tanks, and statistical organizations have cited or used the 1965–1980 definition, including the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), The New York Times, The Washington Post, Gallup, and Time magazine. 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. 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". In Australia, the McCrindle Research Center uses 1965–1979. The Brookings Institution, another U.S. think tank, sets the Gen X period as from 1965 to 1981. Statistics Canada and the UK's Resolution Foundation define Gen X as those born between 1966 and 1980. 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. People born in the latter half of the Baby Boom, from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, are sometimes called Generation Jones. People born in the Generation X/millennial cusp years of the late 1970s and early 1980s are sometimes called Xennials or the Oregon Trail Generation. These "microgenerations" share characteristics of both their adjacent generations.

United States

Generation X population numbers vary, depending on the date range used. 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. In 2011, Jon Miller at the University of Michigan's Longitudinal Study of American Youth wrote, "Generation X refers to adults born between 1961 and 1981" and "includes 84 million people". In their 1991 book Generations, Howe and Strauss counted 88.5 million Gen Xers in the U.S.

Impact of family planning programs

The birth control pill, introduced in 1960 and further popularized in 1964, was one contributing factor of declining birth rates. Initially, the pill spread rapidly amongst married women as an approved treatment for menstrual disturbance. However, it was also found to prevent pregnancy and was prescribed as a contraceptive in 1964. "The pill", as it became commonly known, reached younger, unmarried college women in the late 1960s when state laws were amended and reduced the age of majority from 21 to ages 18–20. These policies are commonly referred to as the Early Legal Access (ELA) laws. Another major factor was abortion, only available in a few states until its legalization in a 1973 US Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. This was replicated elsewhere, with reproductive rights legislation passed, notably in the UK (1967), France (1975), West Germany (1976), New Zealand (1977), Italy (1978), and the Netherlands (1980). From 1973 to 1980, the abortion rate per 1,000 US women aged 15–44 increased from 16% to 29% with more than 9.6 million terminations of pregnancy practiced. Between 1970 and 1980, on average, for every 10 American citizens born, 3 were aborted. However, increased immigration during the same period of time helped to partially offset declining birth-rates and contributed to making Generation X an ethnically and culturally diverse demographic cohort.

Parental lineage

Generally, Gen Xers are the children of the Silent Generation and older baby boomers.

Rising divorce rates and women workforce participation

Strauss and Howe, who wrote several books on generations, including one specifically on Generation X titled 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? (1993), reported that Gen Xers were children at a time when society was less focused on children and more focused on adults. Xers were children during a time of increasing divorce rates, which doubled in the mid-1960s before peaking in 1980. Strauss and Howe described a cultural shift where the long-held social value of staying together for the sake of the children was replaced by a value of parental and individual self-actualization. Strauss wrote that society "moved from what Leslie Fiedler called a 1950s-era 'cult of the child' to what Landon Jones called a 1970s-era 'cult of the adult'". The Generation Map, a report from Australia's McCrindle Research Center writes of Gen X children: Boomer parents were the most divorced generation in Australian history". According to Christine Henseler in the 2012 book Generation X Goes Global: Mapping a Youth Culture in Motion, "We watched the decay and demise (of the family), and grew callous to the loss."

The Gen X childhood coincided with the sexual revolution of the 1960s to 1980s, which Susan Gregory Thomas described in her book In Spite of Everything as confusing and frightening for children in cases where a parent would bring new sexual partners into their home. Thomas also discussed how divorce was different during the Gen X childhood, with the child having a limited or severed relationship with one parent after divorce, often the father, due to differing social and legal expectations. In the 1970s, only nine U.S. states allowed joint custody of children, which has been adopted by all 50 states after a push for joint custody during the mid-1980s. Kramer vs. Kramer, a 1979 American legal drama based on Avery Corman's best-selling novel, epitomized the struggle for child custody and the demise of the traditional nuclear family.

The rapid influx of Boomer women into the labor force that began in the 1970s was marked by the confidence of many in their ability to successfully pursue a career while meeting their children's needs. This resulted in an increase in latchkey children, leading to the term "latchkey generation" for Generation X. These children lacked adult supervision in the hours between the end of the school day and when a parent returned home from work in the evening, and for longer periods of time during the summer. Latchkey children became common among all socioeconomic demographics, but particularly among middle- and upper-class children. The higher the educational attainment of the parents, the higher the odds their children would be latchkey children, due to increased maternal participation in the workforce at a time before childcare options outside the home were widely available. McCrindle Research Centre described the cohort as "the first to grow up without a large adult presence, with both parents working", saying this made Gen Xers more peer-oriented than previous generations.

Conservative and neoliberal turn

Some older Gen Xers started high school in the waning years of the Carter presidency, but much of the cohort became socially and politically conscious during the Reagan Era. President Ronald Reagan, voted in office principally by the Boomer generation, embraced laissez-faire economics with vigor. His policies included cuts in the growth of government spending, reduction in taxes for the higher echelon of society, legalization of stock buybacks, and deregulation of key industries. The early 1980s recession saw unemployment rise to 10.8% in 1982; requiring, more often than not, dual parental incomes. One in five American children grew up in poverty during this time. The federal debt almost tripled during Reagan's time in office, from $998 billion in 1981 to $2.857 trillion in 1989, placing greater burden of repayment on the incoming generation. Government expenditure shifted from domestic programs to defense. Remaining funding initiatives, moreover, tended to be diverted away from programs for children and often directed toward the elderly population, with cuts to Medicaid and programs for children and young families, and protection and expansion of Medicare and Social Security for the elderly population. These programs for the elderly were not tied to economic need. Congressman David Durenberger criticized this political situation, saying that while programs for poor children and young families were cut, the government provided "free health care to elderly millionaires".

Crack epidemic and AIDS

Gen Xers came of age or were children during the 1980s crack epidemic, which disproportionately impacted urban areas as well as the African-American community in the U.S. Drug turf battles increased violent crime, and crack cocaine addiction affected communities and families. Between 1984 and 1989, the homicide rate for black males aged 14 to 17 doubled in the U.S., and the homicide rate for black males aged 18 to 24 increased almost as much. The crack epidemic destabilized families, with an increase in the number of children in foster care. In 1986, President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act to enforce strict mandatory minimum sentencing for drug users. He also increased the federal budget for supply-reduction efforts. The AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s loomed over the adolescence and young adulthood of Generation X. The disease was first clinically observed in the U.S. in 1981; by 1985, an estimated one-to-two million Americans were HIV-positive. This particularly hit the LGBT community. As the virus spread, at a time before effective treatments were available, a public panic ensued. Sex education programs in schools were adapted to address the AIDS epidemic, which taught Gen X students that sex could kill them.

Rise of home computing

Gen Xers were the first children to have access to personal computers in their homes and at schools. In the early 1980s, the growth in the use of personal computers exploded. Manufacturers such as Commodore, Atari, and Apple responded to the demand via 8-bit and 16-bit machines. This in turn stimulated the software industries with corresponding developments for backup storage, use of the floppy disk, zip drive, and CD-ROM. At school, several computer projects were supported by the Department of Education under United States Secretary of Education Terrel Bell's "Technology Initiative". This was later mirrored in the UK's 1982 Computers for Schools programme and, in France, under the 1985 scheme Plan Informatique pour Tous (IPT).

Post–civil rights generation

In the U.S., Generation X was the first cohort to grow up post-integration after the racist Jim Crow laws. They were described in a marketing report by Specialty Retail as the kids who "lived the civil rights movement". They were among the first children to be bused to attain integration in the public school system. In the 1990s, Strauss reported Gen Xers were "by any measure the least racist of today's generations". In the U.S., Title IX, which passed in 1972, provided increased athletic opportunities to Gen X girls in the public school setting. Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley and broadcast as a 12-hour series, was viewed as a turning point in the country's ability to relate to Afro-American history.

Continued growth in college enrollments

In the U.S., compared to the Boomer generation, Generation X was more educated than their parents. The share of young adults enrolling in college steadily increased from 1983, before peaking in 1998. In 1965, as early Boomers entered college, total enrollment of new undergraduates was just over 5.7 million across the public and private sectors. By 1983, the first year of Gen X college enrollments (per Pew Research's definition), this figure had reached 12.2 million. This was an increase of 53%, effectively a doubling in student intake. As the 1990s progressed, Gen X college enrollments continued to climb, with increased loan borrowing as the cost of an education became substantially more expensive compared to their peers in the mid-1980s. By 1998, the generation's last year of college enrollment, those entering the higher education sector totaled 14.3 million. In addition, unlike Boomers and previous generations, women outpaced men in college completion rates.