Millennials in the United States

Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe, who created the Strauss–Howe generational theory, coined the term 'millennial' in 1987. because the oldest members of this demographic cohort came of age at around the turn of the third millennium A.D. They wrote about the cohort in their books ''Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 (1991) and Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation'' (2000). In August 1993, an Advertising Age editorial coined the phrase Generation Y to describe teenagers of the day, then aged 13–19 (born 1974–1980), who were at the time defined as different from Generation X. However, the 1974–1980 cohort was later re-identified by most media sources as the last wave of Generation X, and by 2003 Ad Age had moved their Generation Y starting year up to 1982. According to journalist Bruce Horovitz, in 2012, Ad Age "threw in the towel by conceding that millennials is a better name than Gen Y," Millennials are sometimes called echo boomers, due to them often being the offspring of the baby boomers, the significant increase in birth rates from the early 1980s to mid-1990s, and their generation's large size relative to that of boomers. In the United States, the echo boom's birth rates peaked in August 1990 Psychologist Jean Twenge described millennials as "Generation Me" in her 2006 book ''Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – and More Miserable Than Ever Before, while in 2013, Time magazine ran a cover story titled Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation. Alternative names for this group proposed include the Net Generation, Generation 9/11, Generation Next, and The Burnout Generation''. American sociologist Kathleen Shaputis labeled millennials as the Boomerang Generation or Peter Pan Generation because of the members' perceived tendency for delaying some rites of passage into adulthood for longer periods than most generations before them. These labels were also a reference to a trend toward members living with their parents for longer periods than previous generations. Kimberly Palmer regards the high cost of housing and higher education, and the relative affluence of older generations, as among the factors driving the trend. Questions regarding a clear definition of what it means to be an adult also impact a debate about delayed transitions into adulthood and the emergence of a new life stage, Emerging Adulthood. A 2012 study by professors at Brigham Young University found that college students were more likely to define "adult" based on certain personal abilities and characteristics rather than more traditional "rite of passage" events. Larry Nelson noted that "In prior generations, you get married and you start a career and you do that immediately. What young people today are seeing is that approach has led to divorces, to people unhappy with their careers … The majority want to get married […] they just want to do it right the first time, the same thing with their careers." ==Date and age range definitions==

Oxford Living Dictionaries describes a millennial as a person "born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s." Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines millennial as "a person born in the 1980s or 1990s." Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote for The Economist in 2018 that "generations are squishy concepts", but the 1981 to 1996 birth cohort is a "widely accepted" definition for millennials. Reuters also state that the "widely accepted definition" is 1981–1996. Although the United States Census Bureau have said that "there is no official start and end date for when millennials were born" and they do not officially define millennials, a U.S. Census publication in 2022 noted that Millennials are "colloquially defined as" the cohort born from 1981 to 1996, using this definition in a breakdown of Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data. The Pew Research Center defines millennials as born from 1981 to 1996, choosing these dates for "key political, economic and social factors", including the September 11 terrorist attacks, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Great Recession, and Internet explosion. The United States Library of Congress explains that "defining generations is not an exact science" however cites Pew's 1981-1996 definition to define millennials. Various media outlets and statistical organizations have cited Pew's definition including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, PBS, The Los Angeles Times, and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Brookings Institution defines the millennial generation as those born from 1981 to 1996, as does Gallup, Federal Reserve Board, American Psychological Association, and CBS. Psychologist Jean Twenge defines millennials as those born 1980–1994. CNN reports that studies often use 1981–1996 to define millennials, but sometimes list 1980–2000. Sociologist Elwood Carlson, who calls the generation "New Boomers", identified the birth years of 1983–2001, based on the upswing in births after 1983 and finishing with the "political and social challenges" that occurred after the 9/11 terrorist acts. The cohorts born during the cusp years before and after millennials have been identified as "microgenerations" with characteristics of both generations. Names given to these cuspers include Xennials, Generation Catalano, the Oregon Trail Generation; Zennials, and Zillennials, respectively. == Cognitive abilities ==

Intelligence researcher James R. Flynn discovered that back in the 1950s, the gap between the vocabulary levels of adults and children was much smaller than it is in the early twenty-first century. Between 1953 and 2006, adult gains on the vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler IQ test were 17.4 points whereas the corresponding gains for children were only 4. He asserted that some of the reasons for this are the surge in interest in higher education and cultural changes. The number of Americans pursuing tertiary qualifications and cognitively demanding jobs has risen significantly since the 1950s. This boosted the level of vocabulary among adults. Back in the 1950s, children generally imitated their parents and adopted their vocabulary. This was no longer the case in the 2000s, when teenagers often developed their own subculture and as such were less likely to use adult-level vocabulary on their essays. Psychologists Jean Twenge, W. Keith Campbell, and Ryne A. Sherman analyzed vocabulary test scores on the U.S. General Social Survey (n = 29,912) and found that after correcting for education, the use of sophisticated vocabulary has declined between the mid-1970s and the mid-2010s across all levels of education, from below high school to graduate school. Those with at least a bachelor's degree saw the steepest decline. Hence, the gap between people who never received a high-school diploma and a university graduate has shrunk from an average of 3.4 correct answers in the mid- to late-1970s to 2.9 in the early- to mid-2010s. Higher education offers little to no benefits to verbal ability. Because those with only a moderate level of vocabulary were more likely to be admitted to university than in the past, the average for degree holders declined. There are various explanations for this. Accepting high levels of immigrants, many of whom not particularly proficient in the English language, could lower the national adult average. Young people nowadays are much less likely to read for pleasure, thus reducing their levels of vocabulary. On the other hand, while the College Board has reported that SAT verbal scores were on the decline, these scores are an imperfect measure of the vocabulary level of the nation as a whole because the test-taking demographic has changed and because more students take the SAT in the 2010s then in the 1970s, which means there are more with limited ability who took it. Population aging is unconvincing because the effect is too weak. ==Common culture==

assemble on deck in a special formation to commemorate the 9/11 terrorist attacks with the idiom "Let's roll!" shortly before Patriot Day, 2002. 9/11 and the start of the subsequent War on Terror took place when Millennials were either still growing up or were young adults. Millennials grew up during the 1990s, a time of peace, prosperity, and predictability that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. As adults, Millennials expect the institutions to look after their well-being. They tend to follow a slow life history strategy, For many Millennials, the shock and sorrow that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 marked either the end of childhood or the start of a less happy one; it was a generational touchstone. Americans shared their flashbulb memories of where they were when they learned what had happened. Surveys of high-school seniors and college freshmen of the early 2010s found that the proportion of students who placed a high value on wealth and who did not think it was important to keep abreast of political affairs grew, while the number of those who thought it was necessary to develop "a meaningful philosophy of life" fell compared to older generations. Compared to Baby Boomers, Millennials were also less likely to be involved in an environmental cleanup effort. Experts disagree on whether or not the level of narcissism, as measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), has gone up among Millennials relative to other cohorts. In any case, there is considerable evidence for Millennials being a highly self-focused cohort as American society at large continues to shift towards individualism, a trend observed in every generation born after the Second World War. Phrases such as "believe in yourself" or "just be yourself" appeared with growing frequencies among popular books published during the formative years of Millennials. It was discovered that millennials are less likely to strongly identify with the generational term when compared to Generation X or the baby boomers, with only 40% of those born between 1981 and 1997 identifying as millennials. Among older millennials, those born 1981–1988, Pew Research found that 43% personally identified as members of the older demographic cohort, Generation X, while only 35% identified as millennials. Among younger millennials (born 1989–1997), generational identity was not much stronger, with only 45% personally identifying as millennials. It was also found that millennials chose most often to define themselves with more negative terms such as self-absorbed, wasteful, or greedy. Among Millennials who played computer games, Oregon Trail II and Super Mario Bros. were among the most popular choices. Tops songs during period had lyrics emphasizing the level of individualism among Millennials. "I am the greatest man that ever lived," declared the band Weezer. "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" asked the Pussycat Dolls.A 2007 report by the National Endowment of the Arts stated that Americans aged 15 to 24 spent an average of two hours watching television and only seven minutes on reading. Reading comprehension skills of American adults of all levels of education deteriorated between the early 1990s and the early 2000s, especially among those with advanced degrees. According to employers, almost three quarters of university graduates were "deficient" in English writing skills. Meanwhile, the reading scores of American tenth-graders proved mediocre, in fifteenth place out of 31 industrialized nations, and the number of twelfth-graders who had never read for pleasure doubled to 19%. Publishers and booksellers observed that the sales of adolescent and young-adult fiction remained strong. Part of the reason is because older adults were buying titles intended for younger people, which inflated the market, and because there were fewer readers buying more books. Despite having the reputation for "killing" many things of value to the older generations, millennials and Generation Z are nostalgically preserving Polaroid cameras, vinyl records, needlepoint, and home gardening, to name just some. In fact, Millennials are a key cohort behind the vinyl revival. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s, certain items whose futures were in doubt due to a general lack of interest by millennials appear to be reviving with stronger sales than in previous years, such as canned food. Millennial fans, especially girls and women, have been the key factor behind the commercial success of franchises such as Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games. More recently, they came out in large numbers for the movies Barbie (2023), Lilo & Stitch (2025), Freakier Friday (2025), and for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour (2023–2024). Many Millennials, who are not parents, love the animated series Bluey (2018–present) even though its intended audience is preschool children. For them, Bluey portrays family life in a positive way, fuels nostalgia, and helps them heal emotional wounds from childhood. The film Mean Girls (2004) has had a lasting cultural impact among millennials. The film cemented actress Lindsay Lohan as a household name among the millennial demographic, while also dealing with themes such as bullying, cliques, and friendship, topics millennials in high school have cited as issues. The popularity of the film also introduced Gen Z to millennial culture. Millennials also adopted a tradition of celebrating October 3rd as "Mean Girls Day", based on a quote from Lohan's character Cady Heron in the film. Phrases from the movie like "fetch" and "the limit does not exist" have become instilled in colloquial millennial lexicon, to the point where political figures have used memes of the characters in the films as means to reach out to their millennial base. ==Demographics==

Baby Boomers came of age during a time of reliable contraception and legal abortion. Accordingly, those who had children wanted and planned their families, and these were generally smaller than for previous cohorts. As of the mid-2010s, the United States is one of the few developed countries that does not have a top-heavy population pyramid. In fact, as of 2016, the median age of the U.S. population was younger than that of all other rich nations except Australia, New Zealand, Cyprus, Ireland, and Iceland, whose combined population is only a fraction of the United States. This is because American baby boomers had a higher fertility rate compared to their counterparts from much of the developed world. Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Korea are all aging rapidly by comparison because their millennials are smaller in number than their parents. This demographic reality puts the United States at an advantage compared to many other major economies as the millennials reach middle age: the nation will still have a significant number of consumers, investors, and taxpayers. In the same year, using dates ranging from 1982 to 2004, Neil Howe revised the number to over 95 million people in the U.S. In a 2012 Time magazine article, it was estimated that there were approximately 80 million U.S. millennials. The United States Census Bureau, using birth dates ranging from 1982 to 2000, stated the estimated number of U.S. millennials in 2015 was 83.1 million people. In 2017, fewer than 56% millennial were non-Hispanic whites, compared with more than 84% of Americans in their 70s and 80s, 57% had never been married, and 67% lived in a metropolitan area. By analyzing data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Pew Research Center estimated that millennials, whom they define as people born between 1981 and 1996, outnumbered baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, for the first time in 2019. That year, there were 72.1 million millennials compared to 71.6 million baby boomers, who had previously been the largest living adult generation in the country. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that about 62 million millennials were born in the United States, compared to 55 million members of Generation X, 76 million baby boomers, and 47 million from the Silent Generation. Between 1981 and 1996, an average of 3.9 million millennial babies were born each year, compared to 3.4 million average Generation X births per year between 1965 and 1980. But millennials continue to grow in numbers as a result of immigration and naturalization. In fact, millennials form the largest group of immigrants to the United States in the 2010s. Pew projected that the millennial generation would reach around 74.9 million in 2033, after which mortality would outweigh immigration. Yet 2020 would be the first time millennials (who are between the ages of 24 and 39) find their share of the electorate shrink as the leading wave of Generation Z (aged 18 to 23) became eligible to vote. In other words, their electoral power peaked in 2016. In absolute terms, however, the number of foreign-born millennials continues to increase as they become naturalized citizens. In fact, 10% of American voters were born outside the country by the 2020 election, up from 6% in 2000. The fact that people from different racial or age groups vote differently means that this demographic change will influence the future of the American political landscape. While younger voters hold significantly different views from their elders, they are considerably less likely to vote. Non-whites tend to favor candidates from the Democratic Party while whites by and large prefer the Republican Party. aboard the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk (2004)According to the Pew Research Center, "Among men, only 4% of millennials [ages 21 to 36 in 2017] are veterans, compared with 47%" of men in their 70s and 80s, "many of whom came of age during the Korean War and its aftermath." Some of these former military service members are combat veterans, having fought in Afghanistan and/or Iraq. As of 2016, millennials are the majority of the total veteran population. According to the Pentagon in 2016, 19% of Millennials are interested in serving in the military, and 15% have a parent with a history of military service. ==Economic prospects and trends==

Employment and finances observed that demand for labor in the United States had been stagnant since 2000 and would likely continue to 2020 as the nation approached the trough of the Kondratiev wave. The oldest Millennials were young adults at the time of the Great Recession of the late 2000s, and this event has severely damaged their ability to generate and accumulate wealth. Youth unemployment soared during the Great Recession, reaching a record 19% in July 2010. Underemployment was also a major factor. Many Millennials found themselves struggling to make ends meet and were commonly living with their parents. In April 2012, it was reported that half of all new college graduates in the US were still either unemployed or underemployed. According to a Bloomberg L.P., "Three and a half years after the worst recession since the Great Depression, the earnings and employment gap between those in the under-35 population and their parents and grandparents threatens to unravel the American dream of each generation doing better than the last. The nation's younger workers have benefited least from an economic recovery that has been the most uneven in recent history." Despite higher college attendance rates than Generation X, many Millennials were stuck in low-paid jobs, with the percentage of degree-educated young adults working in low-wage industries rising from 23% to 33% between 2000 and 2014. Not only did they receive lower wages, they also had to work longer hours for fewer benefits. Yet despite all the hardship they have had to endure, they still have remained optimistic, as shown when about nine out of ten millennials surveyed by the Pew Research Center said that they currently have enough money or that they will eventually reach their long-term financial goals. But many Millennials were concerned they were not saving enough for retirement thanks to expensive housing and student debts, among other reasons. Risk management specialist and business economist Olivia S. Mitchell of the University of Pennsylvania calculated that in order to retire at 50% of their last salary before retirement, millennials will have to save 40% of their incomes for 30 years. She told CNBC, "Benefits from Social Security are 76% higher if you claim at age 70 versus 62, which can substitute for a lot of extra savings." Maintaining a healthy lifestyle—avoiding smoking, over-drinking, and sleep deprivation—should prove beneficial.. Working and volunteering after Hurricane Katrina (2006)Millennials prefer to work for companies engaged in the betterment of society. Majorities are willing to take a pay cut to pursue a career path aligned with their passions and values. They have great expectations for advancement, salary, benefits, and for a coaching relationship with their manager, and frequently switch jobs as a result. They are also more likely to value a "work-life balance" than older cohorts. Data also suggests millennials are highly interested in volunteering. At that time, they were responsible for the so-called "back-to-the-city" trend. Many urban areas in different parts of the United States grew considerably as a result. Mini-apartments became more and more common in major urban areas with among young people living alone, who are willing to give up space in exchange for living in a location they liked. Data from the Census Bureau reveals that in 2018, 34% of American adults below the age of 35 owned a home, compared to the national average of almost 64%. As they accumulated wealth, Millennials were becoming homeowners at a pace close to those of the Baby Boomers and Generation X when they were at the same age. This trend will likely continue as more and more Millennials purchase a home. Economic recovery and easily obtained mortgages help explain this phenomenon. Among Baby Boomers who have retired, a significant portion opts to live in the suburbs, where the Millennials are also moving to in large numbers as they have children of their own. These confluent trends increase the level of economic activities in the American suburbs. On the other hand, some Millennials prefer the slower pace of life and lower costs of living in rural places. While rural America lacked the occupational variety offered by urban America, multiple rural counties can still match one major city in terms of economic opportunities. While 14% of the U.S. population relocate at least once each year, Americans in their 20s and 30s are more likely to move than retirees. High taxes and high cost of living are also reasons why people are leaving entire states behind. For example, a 2019 poll by Edelman Intelligence of 1,900 residents of California found that 63% of Millennials said they were thinking about leaving the Golden State and 55% said they wanted to do so within five years. Popular destinations include Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas, according to California's Legislative Analyst's Office. Economics of space is also important, now that it has become much easier to transmit information and that e-commerce and delivery services have contracted perceived distances. Historically, between the 1950s and 1980s, Americans left the cities for the suburbs because of crime. Suburban growth slowed because of the Great Recession but picked up pace afterwards. As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, interest in suburban properties skyrocketed, with Millennials being the largest block of buyers. For this reason, the home-building industry was seeing better recovery than expected. As Millennials and senior citizens increasingly demand affordable housing outside the major cities, to prevent another housing bubble, banks and regulators have restricted lending to filter out speculators and those with bad credit. By the time they neared midlife in the early 2020s, the bulk of older Millennials had entered the housing market, the number of millennial homeowners has grown substantially between the late 2010s and the early 2020s, so much so that by 2022, home-owning millennials outnumbered their renting counterparts for the first time. Millennials working remotely were especially interested in suburban life. They are also more likely to prefer neighbors who share their political views compared to older cohorts and to Generation Z. ==Education==

General trends According to the Pew Research Center, 53% of American millennials attended or were enrolled in university in 2002. By the early 2020s, 39% of millennials had at least a bachelor's degree, more than the Baby Boomers at 25%. Historically, university students were more likely to be male than female. But by the late 2010s, the situation has reversed. Women are now more likely to enroll in university than men. In 2018, upwards of one third of each sex is a university student. In the United States today, high school students are generally encouraged to attend college or university after graduation while the options of technical school and vocational training are often neglected. Historically, high schools separated students on career tracks, but all this changed in the late 1980s and early 1990s thanks to a major effort in the large cities to provide more abstract academic education to everybody. The mission of high schools became preparing students for college. However, this program faltered in the 2010s, as institutions of higher education came under heightened skepticism due to high costs and disappointing results. People became increasingly concerned about debts and deficits. No longer were promises of educating "citizens of the world" or estimates of economic impact coming from abstruse calculations convincing. Colleges and universities found it necessary to prove their worth by clarifying how much money from which industry and company funded research, and how much it would cost to attend. According to the U.S. Department of Education, people with technical or vocational trainings are slightly more likely to be employed than those with a bachelor's degree and significantly more likely to be employed in their fields of specialty. Those who majored in the humanities and the liberal arts in the 2010s were most likely to regret having done so, whereas those in STEM, especially computer science and engineering, were the least likely. As of 2019, the total college debt has exceeded US$1.5 trillion, and two out of three college graduates are saddled with debt. In 2019, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published research (using data from the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances) demonstrating that after controlling for race and age cohort families with heads of household with post-secondary education who were born before 1980 there have been wealth and income premiums, while for families with heads of household with post-secondary education but born after 1980 the wealth premium has weakened to point of statistical insignificance (in part because of the rising cost of college) and the income premium while remaining positive has declined to historic lows (with more pronounced downward trajectories with heads of household with postgraduate degrees). Quantitative historian Peter Turchin noted that the United States was overproducing university graduates in the 2000s and predicted, using historical trends, that this would be one of the causes of political instability in the 2020s, alongside income inequality, stagnating or declining real wages, growing public debt. According to Turchin, intensifying competition among graduates, whose numbers were larger than what the economy could absorb, leads to political polarization, social fragmentation, and even violence as many become disgruntled with their dim prospects despite having attained a high level of education. He warned that the turbulent 1960s and 1970s could return, as having a massive young population with university degrees was one of the key reasons for the instability of the past. According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, students were turning away from liberal arts programs. Between 2012 and 2015, the number of graduates in the humanities dropped from 234,737 to 212,512. Consequently, many schools have relinquished these subjects, dismissed faculty members, or closed completely. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that between 2008 and 2017, the number of people majoring in English plummeted by just over a quarter. At the same time, those in philosophy and religion fell 22% and those who studied foreign languages dropped 16%. Meanwhile, the number of university students majoring in homeland security, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and healthcare skyrocketed. (See figure below.) Despite the fact that educators and political leaders, such as President Barack Obama, have been trying to years to improve the quality of STEM education in the United States, and that various polls have demonstrated that more students are interested in these subjects, many fail to earn a university degree in STEM. Data collected by the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) in 2011 showed that although these students typically came in with excellent high school GPAs and SAT scores, among science and engineering students, including pre-medical students, 60% changed their majors or failed to graduate, twice the attrition rate of all other majors combined. Despite their initial interest in secondary school, many university students find themselves overwhelmed by the reality of a rigorous STEM education. In 2015, educational psychologist Jonathan Wai analyzed average test scores from the Army General Classification Test in 1946 (10,000 students), the Selective Service College Qualification Test in 1952 (38,420), Project Talent in the early 1970s (400,000), the Graduate Record Examination between 2002 and 2005 (over 1.2 million), and the SAT Math and Verbal in 2014 (1.6 million). Wai identified one consistent pattern: those with the highest test scores tended to pick the physical sciences and engineering as their majors while those with the lowest were more likely to choose education. (See figure below.) During the 2010s, the mental health of American graduate students in general was in a state of crisis. Knowledge of history A February 2018 survey of 1,350 individuals found that 66% of the American millennials (and 41% of all U.S. adults) surveyed did not know what Auschwitz was, while 41% incorrectly claimed that two million Jews or fewer were killed during the Holocaust, and 22% said that they had never heard of the Holocaust. Over 95% of American millennials were unaware that a portion of the Holocaust occurred in the Baltic states, which lost over 90% of their pre-war Jewish population, and 49% were not able to name a single Nazi concentration camp or ghetto in German-occupied Europe. However, at least 93% surveyed believed that teaching about the Holocaust in school is important and 96% believed the Holocaust happened. The YouGov survey found that 42% of American millennials have never heard of Mao Zedong and another 40% are unfamiliar with Che Guevara. ==Health and welfare==

Teenage pregnancy Teenage pregnancy rates in the United States have been falling steadily since the 1990s. Mental health Although Millennials generally had a happy time growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, as adults, their mental health was in a state of crisis. During the 2010s, many succumbed to "deaths of despair"—notably, drug overdose, alcoholic liver disease, and suicide. During the late 2010s, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, Millennials had a higher mortality rate than Generation X, whose rate of suicide was alarmingly high in the early 1990s. But even before that, large numbers of Millennials exhibited some of the symptoms of depression, such as difficulty thinking, sleeping, and remembering things. According to a 2019 report from the American College of Cardiology, the prevalence of heart attacks among Americans under the age of 40 increased by an average rate of two percent per year in the previous decade. About one in five patients suffered from a heart attack came from this age group. This is despite the fact that Americans in general were less likely to suffer from heart attacks than before, due in part to a decline in smoking. The consequences of having a heart attack were much worse for young patients who also had diabetes. Besides the common risk factors of heart attacks, namely diabetes, high blood pressure, and family history, young patients also reported marijuana and cocaine intake, but less alcohol consumption. Sports and fitness Fewer American millennials follow sports than their Generation X predecessors, with a McKinsey survey finding that 38 percent of millennials in contrast to 45 percent of Generation X are committed sports fans. However, the trend is not uniform across all sports; the gap disappears for basketball, mixed martial arts, soccer, and collegiate sports. Other athletic activities popular among Millennials include boxing, cycling, running, and swimming. On the other hand, golf has fallen in popularity. The Physical Activity Council's 2018 Participation Report found that millennials were more likely than other generations to participate in water sports such as stand up paddling, board-sailing and surfing. According to the survey of 30,999 Americans, which was conducted in 2017, approximately half of American millennials participated in high caloric activities while approximately one quarter were sedentary. The same report also found millennials to be more active than Baby Boomers in 2017. Thirty-five percent of both millennials and Generation X were reported to be "active to a healthy level," with millennial's activity level reported as higher overall than that of Generation X in 2017. Vision health The American Optometric Association sounded the alarm on the link between the regular use of handheld electronic devices and eyestrain. According to a spokeswoman, digital eyestrain, or computer vision syndrome, is "rampant, especially as we move toward smaller devices and the prominence of devices increase in our everyday lives." Symptoms include dry and irritated eyes, fatigue, eye strain, blurry vision, difficulty focusing, headaches. However, the syndrome does not cause vision loss or any other permanent damage. In order to alleviate or prevent eyestrain, the Vision Council recommends that people limit screen time, take frequent breaks, adjust screen brightness, change the background from bright colors to gray, increase text sizes, and blink more often. Dental health Millennials struggle with dental and oral health. More than 30% of young adults have untreated tooth decay (the highest of any age group), 35% have trouble biting and chewing, and some 38% of this age group find life in general "less satisfying" due to teeth and mouth problems. ==Political views and participation==

Views A 2004 Gallup poll of Americans aged 13 to 17 found that 71% said their social and political views were more or less the same as those of their parents, with just over half holding politically moderate views. (See figure above.) In 2018, Gallup conducted a survey of almost 14,000 Americans from all 50 states and the District of Columbia aged 18 and over on their political sympathies. They found that overall, younger adults, especially those with university degrees and women tended to lean to the left. Gallup found little variations by income groups compared to the national average.Despite their reputation for being politically liberal, Millennials do not necessarily align themselves closely with the left. On one hand, a majority of Millennials support legalizing gay marriage Surveys conducted in 2018 by the Pew Research Center found that Millennials and Generation Z held similar views on a variety of social and political topics, setting them apart from older cohorts. Majorities of Millennials believed that climate change was real and was due to human activities, that the government should play a more active role in solving their problems, that pre-nuptial cohabitation was not wrong, and that ethnic and cultural diversity was good for society. Large numbers of Millennials thought that single motherhood, same-sex marriage, and interracial marriage were neither a positive nor negative for society. In the case of financial responsibility in a two-parent household, though, majorities from across the generations answered that it should be shared, with 79% of both Millennials and Generation Z agreeing. Across all the generations surveyed, at least 84% thought that both parents ought to be responsible for rearing children. Very few thought that fathers should be the ones mainly responsible for taking care of children. Support for restrictions of free speech grew among Millennials on college campuses during the 2010s, reaching 40% in 2015, according to the Pew Research Center. Older generations were considerably much less supportive of this view. Pew noted similar age related trends in the United Kingdom, but not in Germany and Spain. In the United States and the United Kingdom, younger Millennials frequently raised their concerns over microaggressions and advocated for safe spaces and trigger warnings in the university setting. While proponents of these restrictions have described them as conducive to inclusiveness, critics voiced their concerns regarding their impact on free speech, asserting these changes can promote censorship. As university student Rachel Huebner wrote in The Harvard Crimson, "This undue focus on feelings has caused the college campus to often feel like a place where one has to monitor every syllable that is uttered to ensure that it could not under any circumstance offend anyone to the slightest degree." Millennials do not hold significantly different views on the topics of abortion or gun ownership than the broader American population. In general, the older someone was, the less likely that they supported abortion. (See chart to the right.) American society at large is almost evenly split on both issues. In early 2019, Harvard University's Institute of Politics (IOP) Youth Poll asked voters aged 18 to 29—younger millennials and the first wave of Generation Z—what they would like to be priorities for U.S. foreign policy. They found that the top issues for these voters were countering terrorism and protecting human rights (both 39%), and protecting the environment (34%). Preventing nuclear proliferation and defending U.S. allies were not as important to young American voters. Millennials do not hold consistent views when it comes to fiscal policy. Moreover, very few Millennials can correctly define socialism. Even so, Millennials are less likely to consider themselves environmentalists. However, these movements were usually highly decentralized and focused on ideals rather than concrete goals or actions. As journalist Charlotte Alter explains, "There was no single objective but hundreds, or none, depending on whom you asked." ending almost two months of drama. Richard V. Reeves, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote in his book Dream Hoarders (2017) that, "...more than a third of the demonstrators on the May Day 'Occupy' march in 2011 had annual earnings of more than $100,000. But, rather than looking up in envy and resentment, the upper middle class would do well to look at their own position compared to those falling further and further behind." Although later largely dismissed as a footnote in the pages of history, the Occupy Wall Street movement did have some long-term significance due to its language of resentment and (perceived) deprivation. It has led to the rise of populist politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Donald Trump. Pew Research described millennials as playing a significant role in the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Millennials were between 12 and 27 during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. But that millennial enthusiasm all but vanished by the next election cycle while older voters showed more interest. In 2012, when Americans reelected Barack Obama, the voter participation gap between people above the age of 65 and those aged 18 to 24 was 31%. Pew polls conducted a year prior showed that while millennials preferred Barack Obama to Mitt Romney (61% to 37%), members of the Silent Generation leaned towards Romney rather than Obama (54% to 41%). But when looking at white millennials only, Pew found that Obama's advantage which he enjoyed in 2008 ceased to be, as they were split between the two candidates. In addition, despite the hype surrounding the political engagement and possible record turnout among young voters, millennials' voting power is even weaker than first appeared due to the comparatively higher number of them who are non-citizens (12%, as of 2019), according to William Frey of the Brookings Institution. In general, the phenomenon of growing political distrust and de-alignment in the United States is similar to what has been happening in Europe since the last few decades of the twentieth century, even though events like the Watergate scandal or the threatened impeachment of President Bill Clinton are unique to the United States. Such an atmosphere depresses turnouts among younger voters. Among voters in the 18-to-24 age group, turnout dropped from 51% in 1964 to 38% in 2012. Although people between the ages of 25 and 44 were more likely to vote, their turnout rate followed a similarly declining trend during the same period. Political scientists Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin argued that it was therefore unrealistic for Hillary Clinton to expect high turnout rates among millennials in 2016. This political environment also makes voters more likely to consider political outsiders such as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. According to the Brookings Institution, turnout among voters aged 18 to 29 in the 2016 election was 50%. Hillary Clinton won 55% of the votes from this age group while Donald Trump secured 37%. Polls conducted right before the election showed that millennial blacks and Hispanics were concerned about a potential Trump presidency. By contrast, Trump commanded support among young whites, especially men. There was also an enthusiasm gap for the two main candidates. While 32% of young Trump supporters felt excited about the possibility of him being President, only 18% of Clinton supporters said the same about her. The Bookings Institution found that among Trump voters in the 18-to-29 age group, 15% were white women with college degrees, 18% were the same without, 14% were white men with college degrees, and 32% were the same without, for a grand total of 79%. These groups were only 48% of Clinton voters of the same age range in total. On the other hand, a total of 52% of Clinton voters aged 18 to 29 were non-whites with college degrees (17%) and non-whites without them (35%). Clinton's chances of success were hampered by low turnouts among minorities and millennials with university degrees and students. Meanwhile, Trump voters included 41% of white millennials. These people tended to be non-degree holders with full-time jobs and were markedly less likely to be financially insecure than those who did not support Trump. Contrary to the claim that young Americans felt comfortable with the ongoing transformation of the ethnic composition of their country due to immigration, not all of them approve of this change despite the fact that they are an ethnically diverse cohort. In the end, Trump won more votes from whites between the ages of 18 and 29 than early polls suggested. According to the Pew Research Center, only 27% of millennials approved of the Trump presidency while 65% disapproved that year. Although young voters helped Joe Biden win the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, their support for him fell quickly afterwards. Among those aged 30 to 44, Biden's approval rating was -17 points. In 2024, 50% of Millennials voted for Kamala Harris while 47% chose Donald Trump, according to exit polls conducted by the Associated Press. Leadership As teenagers and young adults, Millennials generally did not pay much attention to politics. But as they reach middle age in the 2020s, Millennials have been taking up more senior leadership positions on government. For example, Pete Buttigieg was Secretary of Transportation under President Joe Biden and J.D. Vance is the Vice President under President Donald Trump for his second term. ==Preferred modes of transportation==

Millennials were initially not keen on getting a driver's license or owning a vehicle thanks to new licensing laws and the state of the economy when they came of age, but the oldest among them have already begun buying cars in great numbers. On the surface, the popular story is true: older American Millennials (those born between 1980 and 1984) on average own 0.4 fewer cars than their elders. But when various factors—including income, marital status, number of children, and geographical location—were taken into account, such a distinction ceased to be. Economic forces, namely low gasoline prices, higher income, and suburban growth, result in older Millennials having an attitude towards cars that is no different from that of their predecessors. An analysis of the National Household Travel Survey by the State Smart Transportation Initiative revealed that higher-income millennials drive less than their peers probably because they are able to afford the higher costs of living in large cities, where they can take advantage of alternative modes of transportation, including public transit and ride-hailing services. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, however, some Millennials have been able work remotely and become more keen to take advantage of e-commerce and as such no longer need to drive as often. ==Religious beliefs==

The United States has witnessed a trend towards irreligion that has been accelerating since the 1940s, though the nation's rate of secularization remains slower than that in Europe. American Millennials are the least likely to be religious when compared to older generations. As teenagers during the 1990s and 2000s, a plurality of Millennials did not or rarely attended religious service. On the other hand, some Millennials describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious" and will sometimes turn to astrology, meditation or mindfulness techniques possibly to seek meaning or a sense of control. A 2019 survey by Five Thirty Eight and the American Enterprise Institute identified three key reasons why Millennials were leaving religion in large numbers. Many had grown up in largely secular households and as such never felt a strong connection to organized religion. More young people had irreligious romantic partners or spouses, reinforcing their secular outlook and way of life, and those who had children were less likely to view religion as a source of morality. Many Millennials are skeptical of religious doctrine, which they deem to be factually inaccurate or irrational. Many are hostile towards religious stances, which the dismiss as judgmental, hypocritical, sexist, and homophobic. ==Social tendencies==

Social circles In March 2014, the Pew Research Center issued a report about how "millennials in adulthood" are "detached from institutions and networked with friends." The report said millennials are somewhat more upbeat than older adults about America's future, with 49% of millennials saying the country's best years are ahead, though they're the first in the modern era to have higher levels of student loan debt and unemployment. Romance and sex Like their counterparts in some other wealthy nations, Millennials are less interested in sexual intercourse than previous generations when they were at their age, despite the fact that online dating platforms allow for the possibility of casual sex, the wide availability of contraception, and the relaxation of attitudes towards sex outside of marriage. This is likely part of the ongoing trend in American society towards a slower life-history strategy, in which various adult activities are delayed. Other reasons could be the rise of the Internet, computer games, and social media. Even married couples also had sex less often. In short, people have more options. Although this trend precedes the COVID-19 pandemic, fear of infection is likely to fuel the trend the future. Daniel Cox of Five Thirty Eight observed "a significant push back [among young Americans] against online dating as a way to meet partners." Many had been friends with their current partners before dating. Meanwhile, significant number of Millennials and Generation Z is choosing to remain single, because they do not want to be in a relationship, are facing trouble meeting the right people, or have other priorities at present, such as (higher) education or careers. Marriage and family life had already lost its dominant position in American society to other household arrangements. Research by the Urban Institute conducted in 2014, projected that if current trends continue, Millennials will have a lower marriage rate compared to previous generations, predicting that by age 40, 31% of millennial women will remain single, approximately twice the share of their single Gen-X counterparts. The data showed similar trends for males. In a 2016 article, Richard Fry of the Pew Research Center described Millennials as "the group much more likely to live with their parents" who were "concentrating more on school, careers and work and less focused on forming new families, spouses or partners and children." Compared to Baby Boomers, Millennials are less likely to get married and less likely to get divorced. Millennials who are married tend to tie the knot later in life, Although a majority of Millennials and Generation Z remain open to the option of marriage, significant numbers deem it to be an antiquated institution and an overwhelming majority think it is unnecessary for a fulfilling or happy life. However, it was the middle class and especially the lower class that were driving the U.S. marriage rate down; marriage rates remained steady among the upper class. In general, the level of education is a predictor of marriage and income. University graduates are more likely to get married but less likely to divorce. Married Millennial couples have shown a growing interest in sleeping in separate beds, for the sake of personal comfort, late-night work, quality sleep, and to avoid damaging their relationship. (Historically, it was not a universal norm of couples to share the same bed.) Demographers had previously expected Millennials to "catch up" as they got older and more financially secure. But the evidence did not support this. By the 2020s, the oldest Millennial women were already exiting their childbearing years without having more children. Between 1990 and 2015, the number of married couples aged 18 to 34 with children dropped from 37% to 25%. One reason is the rising cost of raising a child. In the United States today, it is no longer considered acceptable for a child to be unsupervised. Instead, parenting has become much more intensive and time-consuming. Extracurricular activities have become practically required and Millennial parents are spending more time with their children than previous cohorts. Even among Millennials who are gainfully employed, concerns over student loan debts loomed large. Although concerns over climate change and financial security are commonly cited as reasons, the most popular reasons, according to various surveys, are personal independence, more leisure time, and a preference to focus on one's education and career. In fact, about a quarter of Millennials say they do not want to have children. After the Supreme Court decision ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'' (2022), which returned the right to regulate aspects of abortion not covered by federal law to the individual states, the number of young and childfree adults seeking sterilization went up. Previously, it was usually middle-aged fathers who obtained vasectomies. Tubal ligation, a sterilization procedure for women, has grown in popularity as well. At current trend, Millennials are on track to have the lowest birth rate in history, surpassing even the cohort that came of age during the First World War, the Spanish flu epidemic, and the Great Depression. Demographer and futurist Mark McCrindle suggested the name "Generation Alpha" (or Generation \alpha) for the offspring of a majority of Millennials, people born after Generation Z, noting that scientific disciplines often move to the Greek alphabet after exhausting the Roman alphabet. Compared to other cohorts, Millennials spend a lot more time at work, caring for their children, and on educational activities and less time volunteering, religious activities, and sports. Effects of intensifying assortative mating will likely be seen in the next generation, as parental income and educational level are positively correlated with children's success. In the United States, children from families in the highest income quintile are the most likely to live with married parents (94% in 2018), followed by children of the middle class (74%) and the bottom quintile (35%). ==Use of digital technology==

in New York City (2006) Marc Prensky coined the term "digital native" to describe "K through college" students in 2001, explaining they "represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology." In their 2007 book ''Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today's Students'', authors Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa expanded on the work of William Strauss and Neil Howe to include research-based information about the personality profiles of millennials, especially as it relates to higher education. They conducted a large-sample (7,705) research study of college students. They found that Net Generation college students, born 1982 onwards, were frequently in touch with their parents and they used technology at higher rates than people from other generations. In their survey, they found that 97% of these students owned a computer, 94% owned a mobile phone, and 56% owned an MP3 player. They also found that students spoke with their parents an average of 1.5 times a day about a wide range of topics. Other findings in the Junco and Mastrodicasa survey revealed 76% of students used instant messaging, 92% of those reported multitasking while instant messaging, 40% of them used television to get most of their news, and 34% of students surveyed used the Internet as their primary news source. 2015 study by Microsoft found that 77% of respondents aged 18 to 24 said yes to the statement, "When nothing is occupying my attention, the first thing I do is reach for my phone," compared to just 10% for those aged 65 and over. One of the most popular forms of media use by millennials is social networking. Millennials use social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to create a different sense of belonging, make acquaintances, and to remain connected with friends. In 2010, research was published in the Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research which claimed that students who used social media and decided to quit showed the same withdrawal symptoms of a drug addict who quit their stimulant. In the 2014 PBS Frontline episode "Generation Like" there is discussion about millennials, their dependence on technology, and the ways the social media sphere is becoming a commercial product. Some millennials enjoy having hundreds of channels from cable TV. However, some other millennials do not even have a TV, so they watch media over the Internet using smartphones and tablets. Jesse Singal of New York magazine argues that this technology has created a rift within the generation; older millennials, defined here as those born 1988 and earlier, came of age prior to widespread usage and availability of smartphones, in contrast to younger millennials, those born in 1989 and later, who were exposed to this technology in their teen years. Living in the digital age, Millennial parents have taken plenty of photographs of their children, and have chosen both digital storage (e.g. Dropbox) or physical photo albums to preserve their memories. ==See also==