Generation Beta explained: born 2025 onwards, what we know

Generation Beta are the people born from 2025 onwards, so the oldest turned one in 2026. There is no survey data on them yet and nobody should pretend otherwise. This guide explains where the name comes from, why 2026 is the first year with eight living generations, what can reasonably be expected of children born into an AI-first world, and why Alastair argues we should resist pre-judging a generation that cannot yet talk.

Generation Beta is the newest named generation, and the honest thing to say first is that we know almost nothing about them. The oldest members turned one in 2026, and no survey has asked them anything, ours included, because they cannot yet answer. What follows is a guide to the label, the world these children are arriving in, and the limits of what anyone can sensibly claim.

Who are Generation Beta?

Generation Beta (Gen Beta) are the people born from 2025 onwards, which makes them aged 0 to 1 in 2026. They follow Generation Alpha (born 2013 to 2024), who follow Generation Z (born 1997 to 2012). Their parents are mostly younger Millennials and older Gen Z, and their grandparents are Gen X and the youngest Baby Boomers.

2026 is a milestone year for generational arithmetic. It is the year Gen Beta turn one, the youngest Millennials turn 30 and the oldest Baby Boomers turn 80. It is also, as far as anyone can tell, the first time eight generations have been alive at once: the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha and now Gen Beta. The full year table is on our generations explained page.

No end date has been set for Gen Beta. If the recent habit of roughly 15-year cohorts holds, the label will cover children born until about 2039, but that is a guess; boundaries are conventions, not facts.

Where does the name Generation Beta come from?

The name simply continues the alphabet. After Generation X, Y and Z, the Latin letters ran out, and the Australian social researcher Mark McCrindle is commonly credited with proposing a fresh start with the Greek alphabet: Alpha for children born from the early 2010s, Beta for those born from 2025. The labels have spread through the media rather than through any academic body, so nobody formally "decided" on Beta; it was proposed, repeated and stuck.

The Pew Research Center, whose cut-offs we use for the generations up to Gen Z, has not defined Gen Alpha or Gen Beta. Nor does "Beta" say anything about the children themselves, though anyone who works in software will enjoy the irony of a generation named after an unfinished release. Gamma presumably follows in the 2040s.

What world are Generation Beta born into?

Gen Beta are the first generation born after generative AI became an everyday tool. Their parents are the heaviest AI users in the UK: 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials have used an AI platform such as ChatGPT, against 13% of Baby Boomers, according to our 2024 survey of 4,067 people. A child born in 2025 will never remember a world in which you could not ask a machine a question in plain English and get a fluent answer.

They are also born into households where messaging has already beaten the phone call. 91% of Millennials and 87% of Gen Z use WhatsApp, only 35% of Millennials say they like phone calls and make them a lot, and 46% of Millennials would send a message rather than leave a voicemail. Their parents are early adopters too: 44% of Millennials and 45% of Gen Z say they are among the first to try new things, against 15% of Baby Boomers.

Their older siblings and cousins in Gen Alpha give a preview of childhood in this world. 67% of 8 to 12 year olds already have a phone, 72% talk to friends through online games, and 57% are banned from using a phone at school at all. By the time Gen Beta reach that age, the rules on phones in schools and children's social media, still being argued over in 2026, will have been settled one way or another.

Kristine Long, a senior leader at IBM and mother to one of the first Gen Beta babies, reflected on raising a child at this moment in Managing the Middle: Millennial Perspectives on Work and Life. Emily Haslam-Jones, a therapist and specialist in co-regulation, offered practical guidance for the parents of the youngest generations in Generational Connection, Co-Regulation and Raising Gen Alpha.

What can we reasonably expect, and what can we not?

We can reasonably expect Gen Beta to be shaped by AI, by messaging-first parents and by whatever settlement the UK reaches on children and screens. We cannot know their personalities, their attitudes to work or how they will treat older colleagues, because those things are decided by events that have not happened yet. Anyone who claims to know how Gen Beta will behave at work in the 2040s is selling something.

The evidence for caution is in our own data. Every generation has been pre-judged and most of the judgements have failed. Gen Z were called lazy; our 2024 survey found 81% of 18 to 21 year old workers ambitious to move up in their career. They were called unable to talk face to face; 39% would visit a friend in person for their birthday, more than any older generation. Gen Alpha were called screen addicts; 54% would visit a friend in person to say happy birthday, the highest of all.

Formative events matter more than birth years. A generation is framed by what happens to it between childhood and early adulthood: for Gen Z that was the 2008 crash, Brexit and Covid. For Gen Beta those events are still in the future. The label is a placeholder for experiences that have not yet occurred.

Why we should resist pre-judging Generation Beta

Alastair's argument, made in the book and on the podcast, is that generational insight is a lens, not a label. Used well, it helps you notice that a colleague may have grown up with different tools, expectations and pressures. Used badly, it becomes "generation bashing": the same tired stereotypes recycled for each new cohort before its members are old enough to object.

Gen Beta are the test case. There is a temptation to declare them the AI generation, the screen generation or the anxious generation before any of them can hold a conversation. The five principles Alastair recommends to organisations apply here too: curiosity, listening, non-judgement, avoiding comparison and accepting difference. Curiosity means waiting for the evidence. We will begin gathering it when they are old enough to be asked, as we did with 201 Gen Alpha children in the Communication Habits and Preferences 2024 survey.

Until then, the most useful thing anyone can do for Gen Beta is to get better at communicating with the generations already here.

Frequently asked questions

What years are Generation Beta?

Generation Beta are the people born from 2025 onwards, so the oldest turned one in 2026. No end date has been agreed; if the recent pattern of roughly 15-year cohorts holds, the label may cover children born until about 2039. Generation boundaries are conventions rather than facts, and the Pew Research Center has not published a definition of Gen Beta.

Who named Generation Beta?

The name continues the Greek alphabet sequence that began with Generation Alpha, and both labels are commonly credited to the Australian social researcher Mark McCrindle. No academic body formally decided on it; the label was proposed, repeated by the media and stuck. It says nothing about the children themselves.

What will Generation Beta be like?

Nobody knows, and anyone who says otherwise is guessing. What can be said is that they are born into homes where AI is an everyday tool (59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennial parents have used one) and where messaging has beaten the phone call. Their personalities and attitudes to work will be shaped by events that have not yet happened.

What comes after Generation Beta?

Presumably Generation Gamma, continuing the Greek alphabet, for children born from around 2040. Nothing has been settled and the label may never be widely used. For the generations that do exist, our generations explained page sets out the birth years, ages in 2026 and how each communicates according to our 2024 UK survey.