WHERE DO
BIRTH GENERATIONS
LIVE?



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Each birth generation signifies an era in history, and has brought new ideas, theories, etc. So, what are the birth generations, and where are they currently living?
While there is no actual confirmation of the exact years each birth generations were born in, PEW Research has provided insights to what they believe which years each birth generation was born in.
For this analysis, we are looking at 5 generations...

What are the Generations?

Silent Generation

  • Born from 1945 or earlier.
  • Also nicknamed the "Greatest Generation", as the people born and raised during World War II and the Great Depression.

Baby Boomers

  • Born between 1946 and 1964.
  • Got the nickname from the spike of child births after the end of World War II.
  • Also called "Boomers"

Generation X

  • Born between 1965 and 1980.
  • During the events of the Cold War and rise of technology, this generation started to learn and grow with more advanced technology than the Baby Boomers.
  • Also called "Gen X"

Millennials

  • Born between 1981 and 1996.
  • Majority of this generation was born from the late Generation X parents, and from the Baby Boomer parents.

Generation Z

  • Born at 1997 or later.
  • The generation that is fully exposed and raised with the internet, smart phones, and social media.
  • Majority of this group is born from Generation X parents.
  • Also called "Gen Z"
In this analysis, we will be using the American Community Survey data provided by the U.S. Census to compare the living of birth generations between 2013 and 2018. Because we are using U.S. Census Data, the data has age groups in fixed ranges. In order to have a consistent analysis, the birth generations were redefined based on the given census data.

Generations - Redefined based on Census Data:

Silent Generation - 1944 or Earlier

Baby Boomers - 1945 to 1964

Generation X - 1965 to 1984

Millennials - 1985 to 1998

Generation Z - 1999 to Present

Based on the newly defined years for each birth generation, we are still able to come up with detailed information.
Let's start with the birth generations at the national level. What is the current spread?

Population Share of Birth Generations - 2018

Based on the plot, there is roughly an even share between Gen Z and Gen X...

Not to mention Millennials and Boomers sharing the same.

This can be an indication on how a majority of the Boomers are parents to the Millennials, and the majority of Gen X are parents to Gen Z.

Now let's go by state, are their certain states that have more birth generations than others?

Here, we have Wisconsin. Compared to the national level, Gen Z and Gen X seem to have a similar pattern. However, the Dairy State seems to have more Boomers than Millennials.

Let's go look at a few other states that shows different trends compared to the national level.

Here we have Utah, where not only are there more Millennials than Boomers, but there are also a lot of more Gen Z kids.

How about California? While there are less of the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers, Gen X has the lead over Millennials and Gen Z.

Meanwhile, Florida holds more of the older generation. This shouldn't be much of a shock, as some Boomers are in the stages of retirement, and this state is known to be a retirement destination.

For a state that has less population than Florida, Maine also has a lot more Boomers than the rest.

Vermont Too!

But if we look at Texas, the younger crowd conquers the state. A larger than normal share of Gen Z's, but also more Millennials than Boomers.

Gen X takes all for New York, but almost an even share on the Millennials and Boomers.

Didn't see the state you wanted to look at? Feel Free to use the dropdown menu to look at other states!

So far, we were able to look at the national and state level, but what if we were able to look at a level that focuses on urban areas?
Let's go into further detail by examining the birth generations with this map of the contintental United States.

Here we see each "dot" as the top 500 urban areas in population in the contintental U.S. (from 2018). Urban Areas are from the U.S. Census Bureau where densely developed areas contain blocks and census tracts of 2,500 or more people.

To start off, we begin with the Silent Generation in 2018.

You can use your mouse to hover over each urban area to further explore that area's birth generation share.

The Baby Boomers in 2018.

Next we have Generation X in 2018.

Millennials in 2018...

Finally Generation Z in 2018...

Going through all 5 Generations, each map looks like a regular population map, right?

How about we explore the population change instead of population total for each generation. That way, we will see where the biggest changes were from 2013 and 2018.

On the map we now have urban areas that have gained population between 2013 and 2018.

Continue to hover over the urban areas to compare each birth generation's population percent change.

Now, let's compare the population change by generation.

According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC), the life expectency in the U.S. is 78.6 years. Therefore, the Silent Generation naturally experiences population decline. Thus, we will compare with just Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z.

Here are the biggest population changes for the Boomers.

Now that we are at the stage where Baby Boomers are retiring, we can see places like Florida gaining a large population of Boomers.

For Generation X, notice how the Midwest looks rather empty compared to the Southeast and West Coast.

Millennials, on the other hand, seemed to have migrated into specific areas.

Urban Areas like Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Washington D.C., and New York City have over 100,000 Millennials migrate during the 5 year span.

Last, but not least, the incredible growth of Generation Z. Since this is a 5 year comparison, this shows how many kids were born in the past 5 years.

This can be an indicator of potentionally a new "boom" that will be raised in America, and maybe a new generation of its own.

And there you have it. Feel like you're living in the right area based on age?

In conclusion, we are seeing a spike in Generation Z over the past 5 years, and can understand a good portion of Millennials and Gen X are moving more in the city. Meanwhile, we are seeing the first wave of Boomers retire, and not have as dense of a population in some of the larger urban areas.

Want to go into more detail?

You can! Using the dot density technique in mapping, we can look at an even larger scale of the distribution of birth generations around the nation.

Click on the Explore Tab to learn more!

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