Millennials were the largest generation group in the U.S. in 2023, with an estimated population of 72.7 million. Born between 1981 and 1996, Millennials recently surpassed Baby Boomers as the biggest group, and they will continue to be a major part of the population for many years. The rise of Generation Alpha Generation Alpha is the most recent to have been named, and many group members will not be able to remember a time before smartphones and social media. However, the group already makes up around 42.75 percent of the U.S. population, and they are said to be the most racially and ethnically diverse of all the generation groups, with the oldest Generation Alpha members aging into adolescents this year. Boomers vs. Millennials The number of Baby Boomers, whose generation was defined by the boom in births following the Second World War, has fallen by around seven million since 2010. However, they remain the second-largest generation group, and aging Boomers are contributing to steady increases in the median age of the population. Meanwhile, the Millennial generation continues to grow, and one reason for this is the increasing number of young immigrants arriving in the United States.

In 2023, Millennials were the largest generation group in the United States, making up about 21.71 percent of the population. However, Generation Z was not far behind, with Gen Z accounting for around 20.69 percent of the population in that year.

The statistic shows the number of people in the U.S. in 2011 and 2030, by generation. By 2030, the Millennial generation will have 78 million people whereas the Boomer generation will only have 56 million people in the United States.

In 2023, there were about 72.7 million Millennials estimated to be living in the United States, making them the largest generation group in the country. In comparison, there were 69.31 million Gen Z and 65.35 million Gen X estimated to be in the United States in that year.

In 2022, 51 percent of Generation Z in the United States were White. In comparison, 48 percent of Gen Alpha were White in that year, making it the first generation that does not have a majority White population in the United States.

In 2022, about 36.17 million households were led by a member of Generation X in the United States, while 34.93 million were led by Millennials.

According to a survey conducted in the United States between July 2023 and June 2024, Millennials made up 37 percent of social media users in the country. Overall, Generation Z accounted for one quarter of the United States' social media audience, and Generation Z made up 28 percent. Additionally, Baby boomers accounted for just ten percent of users.

In 2021, messaging and video sharing platform Snapchat was more popular than TikTok among Gen Z users in the United States. TikTok counted around 37 million users who were born between 1997 and 2012, while Instagram reported around 33 million users in the same period. Snapchat, which counted 42 million Gen Z users, is projected to reach 49.5 million users in the examined demographic by 2025. Overall, platforms such as Pinterest, Twitter and Reddit had significantly less users amongst this age group.

By 2028, it is estimated that Gen Z and millennial voters will comprise the majority of eligible voters in the United States. In the upcoming 2024 presidential election, Gen Z and millennial voters will make up around 48.5 percent of eligible voters in the country.

Data from a survey held in August 2022 in the United States revealed that the most popular news source among millennials was social media, with 45 percent of respondents reporting daily news consumption on social networks. This was more than double the share who got their news via radio. When it comes to trust, though, social media does not fare well.

Social media and news consumption

As adults of all ages spend more and more time on social media, news consumption via this avenue is likely to increase, but something which could affect this trend is the lack of trust in the news consumers encounter on social platforms. Although now the preferred option for younger audiences, social networks are among the least trusted news sources in the United States, and concerns about fake news remain prevalent.

Young audiences and fake news

Inaccurate news is a major problem which worsened during the 2016 and 2020 presidential election campaigns and the COVID-19 pandemic. A global study found that most Gen Z and Millennial news consumers ignored fake coronavirus news on social media, but almost 20 percent interacted with such posts in the comments section, and over seven percent shared the content. Younger news consumers in the United States were also the most likely to report feeling overwhelmed by COVID-19 news. As younger audiences were the most likely to get their updates on the outbreak via social media, this also made them the most susceptible to fake news, and younger generations are also the most prone to ‘doomscrolling’, an addictive act where the reader pursues and digests multiple negative or upsetting news articles in one sitting.

Washington, D.C. had the highest net migration for 18- to 24-year-olds in 2021, making it the most attractive city among the generation Z population. The number of Zoomers who moved in less the number of Zoomers who moved out of Washington stood at 12,912. Columbia, SC, and Boston, MA, were the two other cities where this figure where the net migration exceeded 10,000.

This statistic shows the number of people in the United States aged 25 to 34, by annual earnings in 2015 in U.S. dollars. In 2015, there were over 2.36 million millennials earning over 100,000 dollars per year.

In the first quarter of 2024, 51.8 percent of the total wealth in the United States was owned by members of the baby boomer generation. In comparison, millennials owned around 9.4 percent of total wealth in the U.S. In terms of population distribution, there is almost an equal share of millennials and baby boomers in the United States.

The statistic shows the share of members of different etnicities or races within the Millennials in the U.S. The term Millennials refers to the age group 18 to 34 here. In 2011, 60 percent of the Millennials in the United States were non-Hispanic Whites.

Video content consumption habits vary significantly across generations in the United States, with social video and live streaming emerging as the dominant format for younger viewers. Among Gen Z, nearly half of respondents to a 2023 survey preferred social video and live streams, while this was the case for one third of millennials. Furthermore, millennials were generally more likely to choose TV shows and movies as their most popular content type than Gen Z.

In 2023, the disposable income of a household led by a Millennial in the United States was 97,866 U.S. dollars per year. Households led by someone born in Generation X, however, had a disposable income of around 113,886 U.S. dollars in 2023.

According to a survey conducted during October 2023, American Gen Z consumers used on average over six video streaming services to access TV shows and movies. This marks an increase compared with the survey period in 2020.

As of September 2018, 21 percent of U.S. Twitter users were between 25 and 34 years old. Furthermore, 55 to 64 year olds accounted for the same amount of U.S. Twitter audiences. A separate study from April 2019 shows that the majority of U.S. Twitter users in the United States were male. Twitter users in the United States While constantly standing in the shadow of more popular social networking services Facebook or Instagram, Twitter is one of the biggest social networks worldwide. In 2019, it was found that 22 percent of adults in the United States used the microblogging service, down from 24 percent in the previous year. The United States was also the online market with the biggest Twitter audiences, ahead of Japan and the United Kingdom. Twitter reported 68 million monthly active Twitter users in the United States as of the first quarter of 2019. Twitter marketing Twitter is also a popular platform for marketers to promote their businesses. During a 2018 survey, 62 percent of responding global marketers stated that they used Twitter for marketing purposes. However, according to internet users in the United States, the platform ranked behind all other social media platforms in terms of shopping influence.

Gen Z and millennial men in the United States are more likely to live with their parents than women in the same age group. In 2023, approximately 11 percent of women aged 25 to 34 lived in their parents' home, compared to almost 19 percent of men. When looking at the age group of 18 to 24, the difference was less drastic.

In the third quarter of 2024, 51.6 percent of the total wealth in the United States was owned by members of the baby boomer generation. In comparison, millennials owned around ten percent of total wealth in the U.S. In terms of population distribution, there is almost an equal share of millennials and baby boomers in the United States.