Generations · 8 of 11
You remember dial-up, but you had a smartphone by graduation.
Who are the Zillennials?
Zillennials are the micro-generation born in the early-to-late 1990s, on the line between Millennials and Gen Z. Most writers use about 1993 to 1998. The word, a blend of Gen Z and Millennial, was first recorded in the late 2010s. No research body defines it; Pew splits these years at 1996.
The years, by who you ask
Nobody owns these lines. Each researcher draws them for their own reasons, so the edges move.
| Dictionary.com | early to late 1990s 1 |
|---|---|
| Common usage | about 1993–1998 |
| Pew Research Center | no such group: Millennials to 1996, Gen Z from 1997 2 |
McCrindle's lines put the split even earlier, starting Gen Z in 1995, which is one reason people born in the mid-1990s are rarely sure what they are. 3
The world they were born into
What was going on while they were small, and while they were young enough for it to stick.
- Childhood1990s–2000sThe internet was already in the house for many: home broadband was in only 1 percent of homes in 2000 but 29 percent by early 2005. 4
- September 112001They were small children at 9/11, the line Pew uses: the older ones remember it, the younger ones mostly do not. 2
- Teenagers2007–2011The iPhone arrived in June 2007, when they were roughly 9 to 14. By 2011, 35 percent of American adults had a smartphone. 5,6
- Starting out2008–2020The oldest reached adulthood in the Great Recession; the youngest started work just before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020. 7,8
Where the name came from
A blend of "Gen Z" and "Millennial", first recorded between 2015 and 2020. Dictionary.com calls it a microgeneration falling between the two. 1
How they're usually described
The generalities: what researchers and writers say about the group as a whole. A group portrait, never a person.
Half-and-half. Most descriptions are about technology: old enough to remember life before smartphones, young enough to have had one in high school. That much fits the dates. 6
Opinion, not data. Beyond that, descriptions of Zillennials are mostly self-description and social-media talk. No survey yet treats them as a separate group.
Next to the other generations
Who raised them, who they raised, and where the friction and the common ground show up in the data.
Millennials. Pew counts the years to 1996 as Millennial. 2
Gen Z. Pew counts 1997 on as Gen Z, and found the two generations look much alike on social and political questions anyway. 2,9
Xennials. The same kind of label at the previous boundary, Gen X to Millennial.
In the long cycle
A theory, not a finding: Strauss and Howe's idea that generations come round in a four-part pattern. How the theory works, and its critics.
Strauss and Howe run the Millennials all the way to 2004, so in their theory every Zillennial is a Millennial and a Hero. 10
The decades they were born in
Zillennials were born in the 1990s.
Questions people ask
What years are Zillennials?
The early to late 1990s; most writers use about 1993 to 1998. It is an informal label with no official years.
Is 1997 Gen Z or Millennial?
Pew counts 1997 as the first Gen Z year. McCrindle already counts it as Gen Z. Strauss and Howe count it as Millennial. Born in 1997, you fit Zillennial too.
Is Zillennial a real generation?
It is a popular label, not a research category. It describes something true about technology timing, but no survey body uses it.
Half Millennial, half Gen Z. All you on the card.
Your generation is the crowd you were born into. Your card is worked out from your own birthday, minute and place: the sky that night, your numbers and your Chinese year. Sealed until you print it.
What your card covers
See all six pages, sealedFold the pages back
1 Who you are
2 The machine says
3 Your sky
4 Love & your people
5 Work & money
6 Your year ahead
Sources
- Zillennial, Dictionary.com. Read on .
- Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins, Pew Research Center, Michael Dimock, 17 January 2019. Read on .
- Generation Alpha defined, McCrindle Research, Mark McCrindle. Read on .
- Internet, Broadband Fact Sheet, Pew Research Center, 20 November 2025. Read on .
- Apple Reinvents the Phone with iPhone, Apple Newsroom, 9 January 2007. Read on .
- Mobile Fact Sheet, Pew Research Center, 20 November 2025. Read on .
- The Great Recession, Federal Reserve History, Robert Rich. Read on .
- WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19, WHO, 11 March 2020. Read on .
- Generation Z Looks a Lot Like Millennials on Key Social and Political Issues, Pew Research Center, Kim Parker, Nikki Graf and Ruth Igielnik, 17 January 2019. Read on .
- Strauss-Howe Generational Theory, Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, Amanda van Eck Duymaer van Twist and Suzanne Newcombe (Inform), 2017, updated 15 January 2021. Read on .