• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 12, 2015

According to a recent Marketing Charts report, marketers are focusing a lot of energy on Millennials; their lives are deconstructed on many different levels, but stepping back to the big picture, how many of these prized individuals are there in the US? The latest data out from the Census Bureau gives a sense of how large this coveted demographic is.

There are a few problems to take note of in looking at the numbers, says the report. Chiefly, there is no consensus definition of a Millennial; while 18-34 seems to be the most commonly used bracket (and which doesn’t appear to change with each passing year!), other studies might use a 14-31 range or some other, making it necessary to identify age ranges when referring to this cohort, says the report.

It’s also worth noting that a young Gen Xer might feel more culturally similar to Gen Y.  Cultural and behavioral tendencies don’t tend to have fixed age breaks. Nevertheless, things being the way they are, says the report, marketers and researchers often look at age groups.

Equally as important is a consideration of the descriptions of the various popularly studied cohorts.

While all generations have similarities it is simplistic to say they are the same, says a recent Pew Research Center report, noting the challenge of studying generations:

"Generational analysis… is not an exact science… there are as many differences in attitudes, values, behaviors and lifestyles within a generation as there are between generations… but (it) does not diminish the value of generational analysis… it adds to its richness and complexity… “

Here’s a list of Western world generations, “… which can be taken to mean North America, Europe, South America, and Oceania, but many variations may exist within the regions, geographically and culturally. The list is broadly indicative, but necessarily very general… “ says Pew Research:

• The Greatest Generation, also known as the G.I. Generation, is the generation that includes the veterans who fought in World War II. They were born from around 1901 through 1924, coming of age during the Great Depression.
• The Silent Generation, also known as the "Lucky Few", were born 1925 through 1942. It includes most of those who fought the Korean War and many during the Vietnam War.
• The Baby Boomers are the generation that was born following World War II, generally from 1943 up to the early 1960s, a time that was marked by an increase in birth rates. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context, and is impossible to achieve broad consensus of a precise date definition. One of the features of Boomers was that they tended to think of themselves as a special generation, very different from those that had come before them. In the 1960s, as the relatively large numbers of young people became teenagers and young adults, they, and those around them, created a very specific rhetoric around their cohort, and the change they were bringing about.
• Generation X, or Gen X, is the generation born after the Western Post–World War II baby boom. Demographers, historians and commentators use beginning birth dates from the early 1960s to the early 1980s.
• Millennials, also known as the Millennial Generation, and Generation Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X. Commentators use birth dates ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.
• Generation Z is one name used for the cohort of people born after the Millennial Generation. There is no agreement on the exact dates of the generation, with some sources starting it at the mid or late 1990s or from the mid 2000s to the present day. This is the generation that is currently being born.

For additional information from MarketingCharts, please visit here.