Generation X

About Generation X

Generation X is a term used to describe generations in the United States and other countries born between the approximate years of 1965 to 1981, the late 1950s and 1960sor 1968 to 1979, depending on the source. The term has been used in demography, the social sciences, and marketing, though it is most often used in popular culture.

In the U.S. Gen X was originally referred as the "baby bust" generation because of the small number of births following the baby boom.

In the UK the term was first used in a 1964 study of British youth by Jane Deverson. Deverson was asked by Woman's Own magazine to conduct a series of interviews with teenagers of the time. The study revealed a generation of teenagers who "sleep together before they are married, don't believe in God, dislike the Queen, and don't respect parents," which was deemed unsuitable for the magazine because it was a new phenomenon. Deverson, in an attempt to save her research, worked with Hollywood correspondent Charles Hamblett to create a book about the study. Hamblett decided to name it Generation X. This term, of course, is different from what Generation X refers to today in North America, since those who sleep together before they marry in the year 1964 were Baby Boomers. Generation X today is a term that refers those those born somewhere between 1961 to 1965 and after. They may have been sleeping together when they were babies, but it is unlikely they would have had any inkling about marriage, God or the Queen.