Top Gen Z Questions Answered!

There is much debate about what to call the generation born after Millennials. At The Center for Generational Kinetics (The Center), my Ph.D. research team and I refer to this emerging generation as Generation Z—or Gen Z for short.

However, we believe that “Gen Z” may not be the generation’s final name. Another name may eventually emerge that better represents this generation, something based on their unique characteristics, a shared global event, or another transformative trend that emerges as they do.

When you look at other generational names, such as Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers, each name emerged when the generation, on average, was older than Gen Z is currently.

It’s important to note that in our research around the world, different geographic regions already use different names to refer to Gen Z. In addition to the geographic name game, some people also refer to Gen Z as “teens”, “tweens”, or “adolescents.” This is not accurate. The terms teens, tweens, and adolescents do not refer to the generation as a whole, but rather a specific life stage and specific age group.

Yes, members of Gen Z can be teens, tweens, and adolescents, but they can also be classified as kids (on the youngest end) and college-age adults on the older end of the Gen Z age range.

Read more about Gen Z in our State of Gen Z annual research report.

Much like agreeing on a name, the birth years for Gen Z are also hotly contested. At The Center, we lead cross-generational research around the world that compares Gen Z with other generations, including Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. This allows us to see where generational differences emerge in everything from communication and employment to voting, influencers, and shopping, as well as to determine accurate birth years.

The birth years we use for Gen Z in North America are approximately 1996 to 2015. One of our research center’s most important discoveries was recognizing that the Millennial generation in the U.S. ends in 1995 and not 2000—as many firms originally stated.

We based this generational discovery (Millennials end around 1995 and Gen Z starts around 1996) on the most important event of the North American Millennial generation: Sept 11, 2001. For those born between 1996 and 2000 to remember 9/11 and have a strong, life-changing emotional connection to the event that shifted their worldview is not likely.

In other words, for Gen Z, the events of 9/11 have always been history, something they learned about in school or they watched on YouTube. Most of the other demographic research firms have now changed their starting birth year for Gen Z to match The Center’s finding.

Where the Gen Z birth years end, however, is another debate. The reason the end date is uncertain is that the youngest members of Gen Z are too young to study in a national or international quantitative study (they’re still under 10 years old). We won’t accurately know where Gen Z ends until they get older and we see the differences between them and the generation after them.

Currently, we estimate that Gen Z birth years end somewhere around 2015, but we won’t know for sure for several more years.

Here is the key point to remember: Gen Z was born from about 1996 to approximately 2015, but the latter year could shift as the generation emerges and we lead more studies for accurate data.

Gen Z’s parents are mainly Generation X and older Millennials, both of whom are raising their kids very differently than Baby Boomers raised theirs. Parenting is a major driver of future beliefs, behaviors, and worldviews, and it influences everything from attitudes about work and education to debt and saving.

At The Center, we frequently study the relationship between Gen Z and their parents—both Millennials and Gen X—to understand how they are being raised and how their parents are shaping their entry into adulthood. Our national studies on this topic are really exciting!

Yes! Our research reveals that Gen Z is proving to be very different from Millennials in many key areas. Our national and international research shows Gen Z is different from Millennials in how they approach saving, spending, debt, shopping, communicating, socializing, investing, technology, privacy, and the workplace. Click here to check out some of our studies to see for yourself.

It’s important that senior leaders don’t view Gen Z as a continuation or more extreme example of Millennials, such as “Millennials 2.0,” because they absolutely are not. Gen Z is a whole new generation, bringing a whole new set of expectations, demands, and tremendous opportunities.

We believe Gen Z’s differences from Millennials create a compelling, time-sensitive opportunity that brands and employers can take advantage of to win the next generation—as long as their strategies and actions are based on accurate data. The problem is that so much of what is said about Gen Z is plucked from clickbait headlines, not grounded in data.

At our research center, we lead our own original studies around the world—on topics such as how Gen Z views the future of the web—and we also analyze our clients’ internal data. This combination provides us with powerful insights and solutions for understanding and unlocking the potential of Gen Z that are not available anywhere else. This is true for everything from attracting Gen Z as customers and influencers to hiring them and unlocking their potential in the workforce.

Our team of Ph.D. researchers is constantly studying Gen Z and I love sharing the findings in my speeches, research, and consulting!