Generations · 3 of 11
Too young for the war, too old for Woodstock.
Who is the Silent Generation?
The Silent Generation were born from 1928 to 1945, as children of the Great Depression and the Second World War. Time magazine gave them the name in 1951 for their reputation as cautious and conformist young adults. Pew uses 1928 to 1945; Strauss and Howe use 1925 to 1942.
The years, by who you ask
Nobody owns these lines. Each researcher draws them for their own reasons, so the edges move.
Pew found the Silent label is the least known of all the living generations' names: fewer people say they have heard of it than any other. 1
The world they were born into
What was going on while they were small, and while they were young enough for it to stick.
- Childhood1930sBorn into the Depression. Births fell to their lowest point of the century in 1933, so this is a small generation. 3
- The war1941–1945Children during the Second World War, with fathers and older brothers away.
- Young adults1950sThey came of age in the postwar boom, married young and started the families that became the baby boom. The Korean War armistice was signed on 27 July 1953, after 36,576 Americans died in Korea. 4,5
- The screen1950sThey set up the first television households: about 9 percent of American homes had a TV in 1950, and 46 million of 53 million had one by 1960. 6
- Civil rights1954They were young adults when the Supreme Court ruled, on 17 May 1954, that separate schools are "inherently unequal". 7
Where the name came from
The name comes from a Time magazine essay of 5 November 1951 on the young adults of the day, who it found quiet, careful and unwilling to stick their necks out. 8,1
Pew's reading is kinder: children of the Depression and the war, with a reputation for being conformist and civic-minded. Before Douglas Coupland took it, even "Generation X" was first used about this group, in a 1952 magazine photo-essay. 1,8
How they're usually described
The generalities: what researchers and writers say about the group as a whole. A group portrait, never a person.
Early starters. They married young. When Pew compared generations at ages 18 to 32, 65 percent of the Silent Generation had been married at that age, against 48 percent of Boomers, 36 percent of Gen X and 26 percent of Millennials. 5
Careful. The image is of a generation that got on with jobs and mortgages rather than making noise. Strauss and Howe call them Artists, born in a crisis and raised under pressure to fit in. 2
The most conservative on many questions. In Pew's 2018 surveys they were the least likely of five generations to say government should do more to solve problems, 39 percent against 70 percent of Gen Z. 9
Next to the other generations
Who raised them, who they raised, and where the friction and the common ground show up in the data.
The Greatest Generation. Their older brothers, sisters and parents, the ones who went to war.
The Baby Boomers. Their children and younger cousins. Many of the parents of the famous 1960s generation gap were Silent, not Greatest.
Gen X. Many younger Gen Xers were born to Silent parents. The Silent and Gen X share one thing in Pew's research: both are the less-talked-about generations, squeezed between bigger ones. 10
Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Their counterparts in the four-turnings theory are the Homeland Generation born from 2005, the next Artists, being raised now during a crisis. 2
In the long cycle
A theory, not a finding: Strauss and Howe's idea that generations come round in a four-part pattern. How the theory works, and its critics.
In Strauss and Howe's scheme the Silent are Artists: children of a Crisis, raised under heavy protection and pressure, who come of age in the calm of a High. Their claimed counterpart is the Homeland Generation, born from 2005. 2
The decades they were born in
The Silent Generation were born before the decades this site covers. They were the young parents of the 1950s.
Questions people ask
Why is it called the Silent Generation?
From a Time magazine essay of November 1951, which described the young adults of the day as quiet and cautious. Pew links the name to their reputation as conformist and civic-minded.
What years is the Silent Generation?
Pew uses 1928 to 1945. Strauss and Howe use 1925 to 1942.
Is the Silent Generation the same as the Greatest Generation?
No. The Greatest Generation were old enough to fight in the Second World War. The Silent Generation were children during it and came of age in the 1950s.
A quiet generation. A card that says a lot.
Your generation is the crowd you were born into. Your card is worked out from your own birthday, minute and place: the sky that night, your numbers and your Chinese year. Sealed until you print it.
What your card covers
See all six pages, sealedFold the pages back
1 Who you are
2 The machine says
3 Your sky
4 Love & your people
5 Work & money
6 Your year ahead
Sources
- The Whys and Hows of Generations Research, Pew Research Center, 3 September 2015. Read on .
- Strauss-Howe Generational Theory, Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, Amanda van Eck Duymaer van Twist and Suzanne Newcombe (Inform), 2017, updated 15 January 2021. Read on .
- NCHS – Births and General Fertility Rates: United States, 1909–2018, CDC, NCHS (data.gov dataset). Read on .
- Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State (1953), U.S. National Archives. Read on .
- Millennials in Adulthood, Pew Research Center, 7 March 2014. Read on .
- Philo Farnsworth and the Invention of Television, U.S. Census Bureau History, September 2023. Read on .
- Brown v. Board of Education (1954), U.S. National Archives. Read on .
- Generational Cohorts, Wordorigins.org, David Wilton, 20 October 2020. Read on .
- Generation Z Looks a Lot Like Millennials on Key Social and Political Issues, Pew Research Center, Kim Parker, Nikki Graf and Ruth Igielnik, 17 January 2019. Read on .
- Generation X: America's neglected 'middle child', Pew Research Center, Paul Taylor and George Gao, 5 June 2014. Read on .