Generation Y
Generation Y is a name for a western "generation" comprised of those born in the 1980s and 1990s although the exact birth years of this age demographic are not fixed. Many in Generation Y are the children of Baby Boomers, and the generation is also known as the echo generation, because it is the largest demographic grouping since the baby boom of the late 1940s-early 1960s.Many labels have been attached to this generation, although none has been overwhelmingly accepted yet. The generation is also called the Millennial Generation, the Millennium Generation, the Net Generation, N-Gen, Generation NeXt or "NeXters," Generation 2000, Generation Y2K, the Sunshine Generation, the Bittersweet Generation, the Hip-hop Generation, the Digital Generation, the Explorers, generation.com, e-Generation, little x-ers, Generation i (for Internet), the Little Boomers, the Boomlet, Generation Can-do, Generation "WHY?", the Y-inistas, and the Bridgers. The name "Newmils" is popular in the UK, as is the term "Thatcher's Children." The term "echo" is most popular in Canada, inspired by David K. Foot and Daniel Stoffman's book Boom, Bust and Echo. The Y in Generation Y comes from the name Generation X sometimes given to the previous generation (Y immediately following X in the alphabet). In the Generations system of authors Strauss and Howe, the Millennial Generation, as they call it, is the generation of Americans born from 1982 to 2003 (assuming that this generation has a typical length).
60 million people were born between 1979 and 1994 in the United States [1]. Some demographers define those years as constituting the large baby bulge of the late 20th century in that country, and define people born between those years as the "echo generation." Those numbers mark the echo as slightly smaller than the Baby Boom (72 million), but much larger than Generation X (18 million). Birth rates in the United States peaked around 1989-90 and have dropped considerably since then, but remain higher than in the 1960s-70s.
The effect of the higher birth rates was felt first in schools. Higher enrollment, which was sometimes up 50-60% in a decade, made school budgetting difficult. Cut backs were made in many areas to maintain basic services.
While the echo was much larger than the previous cohorts, except the Baby Boom, the relative size of this generation is much smaller that the Baby Boom. The American population was much larger in the 1990s than in the 1950s or 60s. From 1946 to 1964, the U.S. total fertility rate averaged 3.3--high enough to double the population every two generations. Since 1980, it has averaged 1.9, which is below the so-called replacement rate.
The child poverty rate was still high in many western countries throughout the 1980s and 90s. The crack babies of the 1980s grew up with severe emotional disabilities.
| Year | Millions | Percent of Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 47.3 | 31.1% |
| 1960 | 64.5 | 35.7% |
| 1970 | 69.8 | 34.0% |
| 1980 | 63.7 | 28.0% |
| 1990 | 64.2 | 25.7% |
| 1998 | 69.8 | 25.9% |
Source: [1]
Famous members of Generation Y
A listing of famous members of the Millenial generation with birth dates from 1982 through 2003 (and death dates for those that have died) includes the following:Cultural endowments
Generation Y's cultural endowments have included the following: