A new generation has arrived that will shape the world we know in the coming decades.
Meet Gen Beta: anyone born between 2025 and 2039. They follow Generation Alpha, who are born between 2010 and 2024.
The terms were coined after the Greek alphabets by Australian-based research firm McCrindle, which provides generational analysis and demographics services.
“We named them Alpha and Beta to signify not just new generations, but the first generations that will be shaped by an entirely different world,” McCrindle says on its website.
“That is why we moved to the Greek alphabet, to signify how these different generations will be raised in a new world of technological integration.”
Born to mostly younger millennials (aged 31 to 45) and older Gen Zs (aged 16 to 30), Gen Beta will make up roughly 16 per cent of the world’s population by 2035, according to McCrindle’s projections.
“In my view, the relative size of this cohort will be relevant, as children will be making up a smaller and smaller proportion of Canada’s population,” Don Kerr, a demographer at King’s University College at Western University in London, Ont., told Global News in an email.
Millennials became the most populous generation in the country in July 2023 and Canada’s fertility rate is at a record low of 1.26 children per woman, so unless the fertility rate rebounds, Gen Beta will likely make up less than 14 per cent of the country’s population by 2040, says Kerr. That’s according to Statistics Canada’s “medium growth” scenario, he said.
By comparison, in the early 1970s, when some of the largest cohorts of the baby boomer were aged 0 to 14, roughly three in 10 Canadians were in that age group, Kerr said.
In 1980, when Gen X was aged 0 to 14 years, they made up about 22 per cent of Canada’s total population.
Sean Lyons, an expert in intergenerational differences and professor at University of Guelph’s Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, says it’s hard to speculate about a generation that is still so new.
“What we can expect is that they’ll be the product of their times,” he said in an email interview.
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“This tends to reflect the parenting style they’ll encounter from their parents, who will be late-millennials and early Gen Z, and the technology they’ll interact with.”
The average age of parents is increasing in Canada.
According to a Statistics Canada report published last year, parents of young children were, on average, 36.2 years old in 2021 – nearly six years older than the average age of new parents (30.7) in 1981.
StatCan says this is the result of the continued postponement of childbearing since the 1970s.
Another StatCan report published in January 2024 said Canada, like other countries, is riding the “fertility ‘pandemic rollercoaster’” with more families putting off having children.
“Given the COVID-19 pandemic initiated a period of public health crisis, as well as economic and societal shocks, it is possible that a segment of the population responded to this period of widespread uncertainty via their childbearing choices,” it reads.
At this rate, Gen Beta kids will be raised by older, more mature, and potentially more economically-established parents – which bodes well for their childhood, Kerr said.
Born in the age of artificial intelligence, it is safe to assume that technology will play a big part in Generation Beta’s everyday life, experts say.
“They will likely be the first generation to experience autonomous transportation at scale, wearable health technologies, and immersive virtual environments as standard aspects of daily life,” McCrindle writes.
“Born into a world of always-on technology, they will navigate friendships, education, and careers in an era where digital interaction is the default,” it adds.
But their Gen Z parents are also more likely to limit their child’s screen time compared to older millennials, according to McCrindle.
Since many couples in Canada are now choosing to remain childless or have fewer kids compared to older generations, Gen Beta “will have a smaller extended family, with fewer cousins, uncles and aunts,” Kerr said. And that will have “consequences for their life experience.”
Gen Beta won’t enter the Canadian workforce until 2039, since the minimum age to work in Canada is typically 14.
“The future of the workforce really seems to hinge at this moment in history on how we will integrate AI into work,” Lyons said.
“It seems very likely that the next generation will develop the skill set to harness AI to make work more productive,” he added.
As with past generations, being a Gen Beta won’t come without its unique challenges.
They will live in a world of “major societal challenges,” with climate change, global population shifts and rapid urbanization, McCrindle said.
Staying on top of new technology will be a lifelong challenge for the current and coming generations, Lyons said.
“Technology is a massive driver of change right now. I think every future generation will face the challenge of adapting rapidly to new technologies that emerge.”
Given that the youngest Gen Betas will be in their 60s by the year 2100, many from this generation will live to see the 22nd century.
