What Comes After Gen Z and What Are The Next Two Generations Called?

What comes after Gen Z?

In most current usage, the generation after Gen Z is Generation Alpha. The term was introduced by Australian social researcher Mark McCrindle around 2008 and is now widely used in reference works such as Encyclopaedia Britannica and in academic and market research.
Britannica describes Generation Alpha as people born from about 2010 to 2025, noting that some researchers use slightly different ranges.

Following that, a number of commentators have suggested Generation Beta as the next label in the sequence. For example, recent summaries of demographic thinking and media coverage describe Generation Alpha as the cohort after Gen Z, and refer to a proposed Generation Beta that would start around 2030 and run through the 2030s.
Overview articles on Generation Alpha and
Generation Beta both highlight that there is not yet a firm consensus, especially for the later cohort.

In short, the most widely used answer right now is: Gen Z is followed by Generation Alpha, and then likely by a group that may end up being called Generation Beta. However, only Generation Alpha is an established label at this point.

What is Generation Alpha and what years does it cover?

Generation Alpha refers to children born entirely in the 21st century who succeed Gen Z. Researchers and popular media generally place its start in the early 2010s and its end in the 2020s, but the exact cutoffs vary by source.
For example, McCrindle Research, which coined the term, uses 2010 to 2024 as the defining years, while a recent
Britannica entry describes Generation Alpha as those born between 2010 and 2025.
Other organizations and scholars bracket the cohort more loosely as “born during the 2010s and 2020s.”

Across sources, the common thread is that Generation Alpha includes children born from roughly 2010 until the mid 2020s, even if individual researchers disagree by a few years at either end.

Because Generation Alpha children are still being born as of the mid 2020s, the label is partly prospective. So far, discussions focus on characteristics like:

• Being the first generation to grow up entirely with smartphones, streaming media, and social platforms from early childhood.
• Experiencing the COVID 19 pandemic during formative school years, which has influenced their education and social development, as noted in analyses by organizations like UNICEF and the World Bank.
• Mostly being children of Millennials, linking them demographically and culturally to Generation Y.

Because demographers are still observing this cohort in real time, definitions can and do change. But if you see a reference to “the generation after Gen Z” in research or media today, it almost always means Generation Alpha.

What is Generation Beta and is it an official name?

Generation Beta is currently a proposed name for the cohort that would follow Generation Alpha. You will see it used in think tank pieces, marketing reports, and some encyclopedic summaries, but it is not yet as settled or widely adopted as labels like Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, or even Gen Alpha.

According to recent summaries of demographic terminology, psychologist Jean Twenge has suggested a range for Generation Alpha that runs from about 2013 to 2029. That framing implies that a subsequent Generation Beta would begin around 2030 and include children born during the 2030s.
A short overview of proposed Generation Beta notes this same idea, describing Generation Beta as “children to be born throughout the 2030s.”
These sources emphasize that, as of the mid 2020s, Generation Beta is still a forecast concept rather than a fully recognized cohort.

Because almost no one in the supposed Generation Beta has actually been born yet, the label is more of an educated guess about future naming patterns than an official demographic category.

There are also alternative suggestions. Some commentators have floated names like “Generation C” or “Coronials” to capture the impact of COVID 19 on today’s young children, or “Generation AI” to highlight the growing role of artificial intelligence in daily life.
These alternatives show that naming is open to cultural debate and that “Generation Beta” is not guaranteed to stick.

How are generation names decided, and who decides them?

There is no central authority that officially assigns generation names or exact year ranges. Unlike astronomical constants or medical classifications, generational labels evolve through a mix of academic usage, media adoption, and popular culture.
As one historian of generational theory and cultural commentators on platforms like Reddit often point out, even the term “Generation X” began as a loose idea rather than a formal designation.

In practice, naming tends to follow this path:

• Researchers and consultants propose a label. For example, Mark McCrindle’s team introduced “Generation Alpha” in a 2008 report and a subsequent book on global generations.
• Media outlets amplify the term. Newspapers, magazines, and online publications begin using the label when discussing emerging patterns in youth behavior, education, or technology.
• Organizations adopt it in research and marketing. Think tanks, government agencies, and brands begin to segment surveys and campaigns by the new label, which gives it more weight.
• The public gradually accepts it. Over time, people start referring to themselves or their children using the label, at which point it feels “real.”

Generation names are descriptive, not prescriptive: they emerge from how people talk about an age group, rather than from a predetermined scientific scheme.

This history explains why there is no obligation to continue neatly from X to Y to Z to Alpha to Beta. The Greek alphabet pattern is convenient, but if a more resonant phrase catches on for the post Alpha cohort, scholars and the public may adopt that instead.

Why do different sources use different years for Gen Z and Generation Alpha?

If you compare charts, you will notice that the cutoff between Gen Z and Generation Alpha is not consistent. Some sources end Gen Z at 2012 or 2013, others at 2009 or 2010, and they start Generation Alpha in slightly different places.
For example, McCrindle’s original work uses 2010 as the start of Generation Alpha, while some foundations and dictionaries define the group more broadly as people born during the 2010s and 2020s.
A 2025 entry in the Cambridge Dictionary describes Gen Alpha simply as those “born during the 2010s and 2020s,” acknowledging the lack of a precise line.

There are several reasons for this fuzziness:

• Generations are social, not biological units. They are defined by shared cultural context, especially during adolescence, rather than by a fixed number of years.
• Trends do not start globally at the same time. The experiences that define Millennials or Gen Z in the United States may not line up exactly with those in India, Brazil, or Nigeria, prompting different local definitions.
• Researchers prioritize different turning points. Some use economic events, others technology adoption, and others political or social changes to mark boundaries.

Because of this, most serious demographic work treats generation ranges as approximate. The important questions tend to be about how cohorts differ in education, work, politics, or technology use, not about whether an individual born in a particular cusp year is “really” Gen Z or Generation Alpha.

Will the names Generation Alpha and Generation Beta stick?

For Generation Alpha, the answer is very likely yes. The term has been in circulation for more than a decade, is now used in reference works like Encyclopaedia Britannica and major media outlets, and appears in policy and market research. Once a label is embedded in that many contexts, it tends to remain, even if its exact birth year boundaries keep getting refined.

For Generation Beta, the future is less certain. As of the mid 2020s, it is a convenient placeholder used by some writers who want a simple continuation of the Greek alphabet pattern. But competing ideas such as “Generation C,” “Generation AI,” or labels tied to future events or technologies could become more compelling once that cohort is actually here.
Historically, even well established working names can change: what we now know as Millennials were widely called “Generation Y” in the 1990s before the Millennial label became dominant.

So the landscape today looks like this:

• Gen Z: Cohort born in the late 1990s and 2000s, now mostly teens and young adults.
• Generation Alpha: Widely accepted name for those born from roughly 2010 to the mid 2020s.
• Generation Beta: Proposed name for those likely to be born starting around 2030, but still very much subject to change.

If you are simply trying to refer to “the next two generations after Gen Z” in a way most readers will understand today, “Generation Alpha” and “the proposed Generation Beta” are the clearest and most accurate phrases to use.