All about Generation Alpha
Skibidi, rizz, sigma – you may have heard these terms before, but do you know what any of them mean?
If you’re part of Generation Alpha, the chances are you do. Slang like this probably feels as natural as using TikTok or putting together the perfect skincare routine.
For those of us who are a little older, though, it can all feel a bit confusing. So, BBC Bitesize has put together this guide to Gen Alpha – who are they, what do we know about them and what on Earth are they saying?
When did Gen Alpha start?
Not everyone agrees on where the boundaries for Gen Alpha should be drawn - some say it's anyone born between 2013 and 2024, while others say it's 2010 to 2025. That means the members of this generation are roughly aged one to 16 as of late 2026.
Demographer Mark McCrindle coined the term ‘Gen Alpha’ because he believed it represented the beginning of a new era. Using the Greek alphabet instead of the Latin one marked them out as the first generation born entirely in the 21st century, raised with digital technology from the get-go.
You might be wondering who determines which generation you fall into, or why we have them at all. There’s no single body that determines where the lines are drawn – instead, they tend to emerge naturally once generational differences become clear through pop culture, academic research and marketing trends.
What comes before and after Gen Alpha?
We have generation names going back to the late 19th century, with the ‘Lost Generation’ born between 1883 and 1900, named by author Ernest Hemingway because they came of age during the First World War. They were followed by the Greatest Generation (1901-1927) and the Silent Generation (1928-1945).
The one you’ve probably heard of is the ‘Baby Boomers’ – often simply referred to as ‘boomers’ – who were named after a spike in the number of babies born after the Second World War, between 1946 and 1964.
This generation is often characterised as one of the wealthiest generations in many Western countries, having lived through a property boom, and is sometimes seen as being out-of-touch with younger generations’ struggles – the phrase ‘OK boomer’ became popular on TikTok as a way for younger people to express their frustration with this.
After the Boomers came Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980. The term was popularised by Canadian author Douglas Coupland in the early 1990s, and described a generation that was more independent, pragmatic and resourceful than its parents, caring more about work-life balance and coming of age just as digital technology like the internet and personal computers became popular.
Speaking of digital technology, it was even more present for the next two cohorts: Millennials and Gen Z. Millennials, also known as Generation Y, were born between 1981 and 1996, so many of them can remember the turn of the millennium in 2000.
You might know them for their skinny jeans, avocado on toast and oat milk lattes. Now aged in their late twenties to mid-forties, millennials are the parents of the majority of Gen Alpha. They grew up as ‘digital natives’ but were born before smartphones were everywhere, in a time when CDs and DVDs were still how you listened to music and watched films.
If you were born between 1997 and 2012, you fall into Gen Z, sometimes known as ‘Zoomers’. This cohort is often described as placing a greater emphasis on health, wellbeing and work-life balance, and is navigating financial pressures like student debt and a declining graduate jobs market. Those on the younger end grew up with digital technology as a normal part of everyday life, while older Gen Zs were ten years old when the first iPhone was released in 2007.
That takes us up to Gen Alpha in 2013. But what comes next? The next generation, born between 2025 and 2039, is known as Gen Beta.
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What do we know about Gen Alpha?
Of course, the lines between different generations are often blurred – a Millennial born in 1996 might feel they have more in common with Gen Z than with someone born in the 1980s. But distinguishing between different generations can be a useful way of tracking how historical, cultural and technological changes affect how we behave and see the world.
So, what do we know about Gen Alpha?
They're one of the biggest - and smallest - generations
Data that tracked the UK population from 1990-2025 found there were roughly nine to 10 million Gen Alphas in the country, compared to over 13 million Baby Boomers and Gen Zs, 14 million Gen Xs and as many as 15 million Millennials – who make up over 21% of the UK population.
As you might expect, the Silent and Greatest generations now constitute the smallest proportion of the population, at around 5%.
Globally, though, it’s a very different story. There are over two billion Gen Alphas in the world, meaning they make up almost a quarter of Earth’s population. The majority of this growth is concentrated in Africa and South Asia. This makes them officially the largest generation in history.
They're digital natives
This term is thrown around a lot when it comes to younger generations, but Gen Alpha is the first to grow up surrounded by smartphones, streaming services and artificial intelligence from day one.
According to a 2024 survey, more than two-thirds of children aged between eight and 12 had a mobile phone and 72% of Gen Alpha communicated with their friends through online games or virtual worlds. They’ve interacted with voice assistants like Alexa and generative AI tools like ChatGPT from a young age. Platforms like TikTok, Roblox and YouTube are more popular with this age group than traditional television, with short-form content favoured over long-form.
Not everyone thinks this is a good thing – there have been reports that a growing number of children aren’t ‘school ready’ by the time they enter primary school, with many children displaying short attention spans and some attempting to tap and swipe physical books as though they’re touchscreens. This is known as the ‘Touch Glass’ phenomenon, and shows how the digital world is far more normal for this age group than for previous generations.
They're Generation COVID
We all remember what a difficult time the COVID-19 pandemic was. Lockdowns, social distancing, self-isolation – and a lot of uncertainty.
The oldest Gen Alphas were around 10 years old when the first lockdown was announced in March 2020. Their world changed overnight, having to adapt to online learning after schools were closed without understanding what was going on. This meant relying on screens more than they might have done otherwise.
A University of Cambridge study found this disruption affected Gen Alpha’s development in terms of social interaction, play and communication. It’s hardly surprising they’ve been dubbed ‘Generation COVID’ or ‘Gen C’ by some.
They have serious spending power
It’s estimated that Gen Alpha and older teens in the UK have a direct spending power in the billions, driven by things like weekend jobs, birthday money and allowances. And it’s not just about Gen Alphas spending their own money – they also have influence over what their parents buy for them.
Social media trends mean beauty and fashion make up a lot of this spending, with so-called ‘Sephora kids’ buying skincare products previous generations didn’t have access to at their age. Dermatologists have warned against using anti-ageing ‘active ingredients’ – like retinoids and peptides – too young, as they can damage the skin barrier and lead to burns or irritation.
Gaming is also hugely popular with this age group. In fact, it’s the main media activity for UK Gen Alphas, with more than 90% of teens in this cohort playing video games on a typical day and almost 40% spending more than three hours a day gaming. Virtual items, in-game currency like V-bucks and Robux and apps therefore also represent a large proportion of Gen Alpha’s spending.
This article was written in October 2026