Millennials and the Church, Part 2

By:  Angela Lee Price

Part 2:  Demographics: Population, Ethnicity and Race, Where live

The Millennial Generation has been described as the “Good News” generation.  That is because within their demography there is a lot of good news. The Millennial Generation has surpassed the Baby Boomer Generation (75.9 million) as the largest in American history and most influential on record with 78 million members.  Not only are they the largest and most influential generation, Millennials also are the most ethnically and racially diverse.  Further, they are projected to become the most educated generation in American history with young adults scoring high on aptitude tests and taking advance placement tests in high numbers.

Birth year ranges often vary for the generational groupings.  Generally, groupings are determined by live births per year demographic patterns or by common historical experiences and behavior. Based on a research of Thom Rainer and Jess Rainer on 1,200 Millennials published in 2011 in the work, The Millennials, Connecting America’s Largest Generation, generational groups based on live birth patterns for the Millennials and four previous generations is as follows (Rainer, 2011, p.8):

Generation Name	Years	Live Births
G. I.	1904 -1924	59.6 million
Silent	1925-1945	55.4 million
Boomer	1946-1964	75.9 million
Generation X	1965 - 1979	51.5 million
Millennial	1980 - 2000	77.9 million

The Millennials have been called by many names, The Digital Generation, Nexters, Screenagers, Echo Boomers, Bridgers, Mosiacs, Generation Y.  While the Millennials are the first generation of the 21^st century, younger Millennials born after 1990 have been impacted much more by technology than their older cohorts.  Younger Millennials are often sub-divided from those born before 1989 and are referred to as the iY Generation. 

The 1980s ushered in the beginning of a significant and steady upturn in population growth which has yielded the largest and ethnically and racially young adult generation.  Whites make up 61 % of the population; Hispanics, 19 %; African Americans, 14 %; Asians, 5 %; and mixed, 1 %.   

Racial and ethnic minorities make up 39% of Millennials and 38% of Gen Xers, compared with just 27% of Baby Boomers and 20% of the Silent generation.  (Pew Report, p. 16)....

         

Millennials generally live in suburban-metropolitan areas. Suburban expansion can be seen when the share of Millennials now living in them (54%) is compared with the share of Boomers who lived in a suburb in 1978 (41%) and the share of Silents who lived in a suburb in 1963 (31%). Millennials are much less likely to live in rural areas than previous generations at comparable ages. Only 14% of Millennials live in rural areas, compared with 29% of Boomers and 36% of the Silent Generation at the same ages. Millennials also are more likely to live in central cities, 32% of them do compared to 23% of the Silent generation. (Pew Report, p. 19).

 Excerpts from my research paper, The Millennials, will be posted here this week as a seven-part series. This paper was written in partial fulfillment of course work for the Masters of Theology program at Campbellsville University, June 2013. All rights reserved.