So, what is the age cut-off for a baby boomer?

[Misunderestimator]

I have never found a consistent answer for that. I'm almost 42 and I think I'm probably the youngest of the boomers, but, who knows? Just something I'm curious about today... :)

[King Of Paperboys]

1. I seem to remember it being 1964.

1965 to 1982 was supposedly "Generation X," which is absurd.

[Misunderestimator]

2. I've heard that as well.... so probably a boomer.

And why the heck does a generation have to have a nickname...

[supernova]

3. I'll be 42

next month.

Whenever I've looked it up, I've been classified as a boomer. But I swear my life experience as been more Gen Xer.

[Misunderestimator]

7. I've just always felt smashed between the two myself

:shrug:

[King Of Paperboys]

5. It's dumber than you think, Misunderestimator

Gen X was named that because they were (supposedly) the tenth generation of Americans.

Now, following them, we've got Gen Y (1983-2000.) So the X USED to stand for 10, but now it stands for... X.

[XNASA]

4. 1946 through 1964 usually.

http://www.bbhq.com/bomrstat.htm

BTW, I was born in '57 which still holds the record as the year when the most births occured in the US. 4.3 million.

I'm your typical boomer.

[Beware the Beast Man]

6. I've heard it's 1961

Then the dreaded Generation X is from 61-81.

[candy]

8. Yes,you are a boomer---1964 was the cut.

The whole thing is rididulous anyway because the early boomers were technically old enough to become parents to the younger boomers.

1945-1964 are the years for the baby boom.

[SW FL Dem]

9. 1964 - my sister just turned 40

She's one of the last boomers.

[Misunderestimator]

10. LOL... I will say...

that THAT was faster than googling... :evilgrin: Thanks guys!

[Sandpiper]

11. You belong to Generation Jones

Too young to be a true "Baby Boomer" (1946 - 1953) and too old to be a Gen X'er (1966 - 1978).

http://generationjones.com/index_old.htm

[Misunderestimator]

13. Arrrggghhhh... You spoiled the party!

Now I'm all confused again... I will say though, that sums me up a bit closer than boomer.... cute.

[Sandpiper]

15. Well technically

You are a boomer since demographers put 1964 as the end of the baby boom.

The generation jones thing is more about cultural differences between the early boomers and the late boomers. I guess the dividing line is whether you were old enough to participate in Vietnam.

[Misunderestimator]

16. Yah... I know that generation Jones isn't officially a generation...

But the 'old enough to serve in Vietnam' seems the most appropriate dividing line when you think about it.

[troublemaker]

12. Most common date cited is '64

[Blue-Jay]

14. I'm "Generation Not-Important"

I was born in late 1966. Not a Boomer, and not (in my mind) a Gen-Xer. Fine by me. I find an equal amount to like/dislike about each of the labels.

[Kickin_Donkey]

17. As stated in a few posts above ...

as seen by demographers, officially the Baby Boom was 1946-64, when there was a statistical bulge in the number of babies being born.

But culturally, in my opinion, "Baby Boomers" refers to those who watched Howdy Doody while growing up and, as someone stated above, were able to participate in some way in the Vietnam era. I would put the cultural cutoff date for Baby Boomers somewhere around 1956-57.

The term "Generation X" is problematic. It's my contention that Douglas Coupland, who wrote the book "Generation X," intended Generation X to refer those born in the last few years of the 1950s and the first few years of the 1960s. These were the kids
– the younger cousins of the cultural Baby Boomers, if you will – who grew up in the cultural Boomers' wake. Because the Boomers were so dominant culturally, those coming just behind them faced a cultural vacuum, thus the name X, referring to this nameless generation. I feel that I'm in this group. I was born in 1962, and I felt that my age group never really had its own culture as a generation; we grew up with the flotsam of the Boomers, and a succeeding culture had yet to develop. Douglas Coupland, the original Generation Xer, was born in 1961. I think if anyone reads the book "Generation X," they will find that it refers to this age group.

HOWEVER, the term Generation X, in the popular culture, has been appropriated and transmogrified to refer to an even younger generation – the children of the Baby Boomers, those born (these are rough dates) from about 1970 to somewhere in the late '70s. Supposedly they were those tech-savvy, postmodern youngsters who staffed the dot-coms of the '90s.

It's ironic that those of us in the true Generation X – the cohort between the cultural Baby Boomers and the cultural Generation X, still don't have a name because we lost it to the generation now known as Generation X. Maybe we, those born in the late '50 and the early '60 should be known as Generation W.

Generations are nebulous, and there is a difference between a demographic generation and a cultural generation. "Baby Boomers" is both, but the demographic Baby Boomers and the cultural Baby Boomers are not identical.