More Gen Xers than Boomers or Millennials?

[Larissa]

I came across this comment referenced at JessieX's blog:

"Just a small little bit re ... the oft-repeated assumption that as Baby Boomers retire no one is around to replace them. Boomers numbered 64.6 million in 2005. GenX numbered 81 million in 2005. Millennials, 79.1 million."

She seems to be getting this from Strauss and Howe, and defines X from 1961-1981. Can anyone confirm her numbers? Stats may not matter in real terms, but it really changes the picture of Gen X as a bust generation.

[Kate Nonymous]

How does it break down if one shortens the time frames for Baby Boomers and Generation X, and counts Generation Jones?

Regardless, I suspect that the real problems are not that there's no one to replace retirees, but that (a) in some fields people aren't retiring, and (b) the way in which retirees are replaced is changing. For example, for years now colleges and universities have not filled some tenured faculty positions, but instead have hired adjuncts to pick up that teaching load.

[Chris Lopez]

Generation Jones has seemed like a silly little sub-generation designation to me. It's so small and what really defines it anyway, other than it is some kind of hiccup between Boomers and GenX. I choose not to aknowledge it, for what that's worth (not much I'd suspect).

Quite true regarding universities hiring practices which involve the use of my adjunct and less replacing of tenure track with tenure track. I've seen this first hand. Eventually, one gets frustrated trying to land a full-time teaching gig and either moves on to a different field or simply accepts the poverty in which one will live, sans benefits and a pension of any kind in many cases.

But doesn't seem that corporate America is heading in the same direction, hiring more and more contract workers than real full-timers?

[Kate Nonymous]

I think Generation Jones is a group of Baby Boomers who don't want to be Boomers.

But I do think there are issues about how generations are defined, and for the moment the best way to address that is to state clearly what definitions are in use. Hard to talk numbers otherwise.

[Patrick Walker]

I would believe that to be true because it is not a black and white cycle. Those of us who consider ourselves coming of age in the '90s are Xers that do not want to be Xers. Starting with the Grunge Revolution and more and more of a move to actually care about something. It was us in the 90s that actually subconsciously believe that there is no difference in a man or a woman, gay or a straight, a "person of color" or a white person. The '90s is more like Generation Transition and the same came be the same about Generation Jones not being Boomers. Not many hippies coming of age in the '70s.

[GenerationXpert]

I can't confirm the numbers, however, I always thought it was bull when they defined Gen X as 1965-1978. Less years would mean less people right? I think 1960-1980 is the best range for Gen X, because the people born betweent those years have so many common characteristics. Seriously, Michelle Obama has a lot more in common with me than with someone like Hillary Clinton.

[Stevie Kane]

1961 to 1981 isn't generation X.... sorry. the numbers in that time frame could be 81 million, but who cares, it doesn't count.

[Jessie Newburn]

I got my numbers straight from a query to a friend at the US Census. She had no knowledge of my motivation for the numbers. I just asked her to run the US Census results. And, yes, I do use the Strauss and Howe definitions of a generation. Duh. ;-)

See, why this is all so fascinating about GenXers being the largest gen -- and the difficulty for people to believe it -- is that we don't ACT like the largest gen, and we even allow a gen for which we are currently 28% larger, to strut around (oh, that's the boomers) as though they are the only real generation that's seen the light of day in decades.

The GenX mission is not to grab the limelight and strut, but to fix The Mess. And for our gen's style of fixing things, it's a lot easier to get more done under the radar. At least it has been. Now, as GenX ascends into mid-life, our numbers, mass and growing unwillingness to be patient and under-the-radar any longer is making itself known.

Dat's what I sez and seez, at least.

[Chris Lopez]

If these Census numbers are true, then why is there so much fretting over the Boomers retiring and there not being as many workers in the workforce to support their Social Security payments?

[Jessie Newburn]

Exactly.

But that's part of the cultural myth. And it's about to be blown out of the water because as GenX get tired of being patient while boomers strut and squat on turf, our numbers will be -- if not known, per se -- experienced.

[Chris Lopez]

Yeah. I've always been under the impression that GenX is significantly smaller then the Boomers and that the Millennials are even bigger than the Boomers, though not much

The year range for what constitutes GenX differs depending on who you ask. And really when you were born is just a starting point for what makes someone X or not. It has to do with how one views the world too. That's not jut my opinion, it jives with Douglas Coupland's, author of Generation X, and I'm pretty sure Jeff Gordiner's, author of X Saves the World.

[Jessie Newburn]

Chris, I offer that the birth years re generations is more of a question of do you believe in the core principles offered by Strauss & Howe ... and the archetypal and cyclical nature of generations? I do. That's why I used their birth year ranges for my Census research.

What gen one is in is not so much how ONE views the world, but how one's GEN PEERS view the world. Right? So if I'm born in 1973 but somehow "think like a boomer," i'm still an xer, right?

[Zoe Right]

If only they would retire, for God's Sakes! We need jobs.