From lazy to old-fashioned: What the data tells us about today’s Generation X

They are cynical, disaffected, and cooler than everyone else. Now they are married, have kids, and are probably your boss.

Classic moments of Generation X seeing is believing Ethan Hawke’s Troy Dyer — a coffee-guzzling, cigarette-smoking, unkempt-haired, guitar-playing boy who is disappointed in everything and everyone except Winona Ryder — declares, “None of this means anything.”

“It’s just a senseless tragedy and a series of random draws that got away with it. So I get pleasure from the details,” he said. “I sit down and smoke my Camel Straights cigarettes and ride my own melter.”

A child of divorce who refuses to kowtow to men by taking a job, Troy embodies the ethos of a generation.

In New Zealand, the details may be different, but Generation X experienced many of the same cultural touchstones. seeing is believing‘The fictional group of lazy people includes the harsh economic realities of the emerging free market.

Yet 30 years later, Troy and his peers are middle-aged, with the oldest members of Generation X approaching their 60s.

So what does Generation X really look like in New Zealand right now?

RNZ used census and other data to try to understand how this generation is faring.

These statistics are bad news for those Gen Xers who cling to their cool image: It turns out they all end up changing careers.

“I think they are the forgotten generation”

Massey University sociologist Professor Paul Spoonley said Generation X had received little attention from demographers compared with previous generations.

“I think they are the forgotten generation. No one talks about them – they don’t stand out.”

He said this is because Generation X is in a “transitional generation” position.

“The difference between their two generations is very obvious.”

They are also less numerous.

Generation X is usually defined as being born between 1965 and 1980, which is a smaller generational range than both the Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and the Millennials/Generation Y (born between early 1981 and the late 1990s) (RNZ used Statistics New Zealand’s definition of 1981 to 2000).

It is difficult to grasp the exact size of each generation using current figures, because migration and death mean the population rises and falls.

But using only the number of live births in the relevant years, the number of Generation X babies born in New Zealand is 935,000, compared to 1,065,000 baby boomers and 1,060,000 millennials.

Statistics New Zealand senior insights analyst Kim Dunstan said the lines between where Generation X began and ended were more blurred than for the baby boomers, who had a proper demographic definition.

“We can define the baby boomers based on New Zealand’s total fertility rate, which is 3.5 or higher every year.”

For Generation X and subsequent generations, there is no such definition and the boundaries are more arbitrary.

Today, Generation X makes up about a quarter of the population, and is not significantly higher in one region than another.

Ethnically, they are very similar to the population as a whole: 69% identify as Pakeha, 14% as Maori, 7% as Pacific Islander and 16% as Asian.

But when you zoom out you see the difference.

They are more urban than baby boomers, with about two-thirds choosing to make their home in cities, but this proportion is lower than that of millennials, who follow closely behind them.

It is difficult to determine how many Generation X people left New Zealand via OE and never returned, but those who did return or stayed are now settled.

In 2018, 77 per cent said their usual place of residence was either the same as five years ago or they had moved there from elsewhere in New Zealand, and more than half lived in a house they owned or in a family trust.

Moreover, the family structure of most Gen Xers is not much different from that of their predecessors, and their living patterns are similar to the environment in which many people grew up: couples and children.

“As they age, they look more like baby boomers than millennials and Gen Z,” said Paul Spoonley.

Dunstan said if you dig deeper, you’ll find subtle differences.

Between the time Generation X was born and the time they reached the average age of marriage, New Zealand’s marriage rate halved.

“There’s no indication that (Gen Xers) are less likely to marry, but the nature of those partnerships is very different, with de facto relationships being more common than they were for baby boomers,” Dunstan said.

This may also explain the low divorce rate, which is the lowest since the 1970s, when divorce was legally much more difficult.

“This may suggest that people who have recently chosen to get legally married have a lower risk of divorce.”

The relative economic stability of Generation X further solidifies their middle-age status.

One of the starkest generational differences in the census data is in their levels of further education – more than 60 per cent gained some kind of additional qualification after leaving school, compared with less than half of baby boomers.

This has to do with the type of careers they are in: not only do they work for a boss, but now they may also become the boss.

A fifth (21%) are managers and another quarter (26%) work in other professional jobs, which is reflected in higher salaries. They are the group of the working-age population least likely to be labourers or other unskilled workers.

Spree said Generation X grew up during the massive economic reforms of the 1980s.

“But some people fell into it, and some people didn’t — there were two kinds of this generation: the lucky ones who didn’t have a lot of student debt, and the ones who were born (around 1980).”

An entire generation has managed to escape (although there are always exceptions) growing up in a recession.

“They’re mature enough in their careers to have missed big events like the global financial crisis — they’re fairly settled,” Spoonley said.

“Labor market turnover dropped significantly during the global financial crisis, likely because baby boomers and Generation X did not leave.”

During the global financial crisis, unemployment rates increased across the board, but the change in the unemployment rate for Generation X was relatively small compared to that of Millennials, who were just entering the workforce.

But that’s not to say things have always been smooth sailing.

Statistics New Zealand’s Kim Dunstan, himself a member of Generation X, said the sheer size of the baby boomers who came before his generation had major economic and political implications.

“There’s a view that they dominate political decision-making from birth, and the state builds a lot of schools and hospitals to cater to their needs,” he said.

It also raises what he called “some interesting labor market implications.”

“For a long time, baby boomers have occupied the management ranks of many private and public organizations.” Only in the past decade have they begun to make way for Generation X.

Data has a hard time capturing how Generation X’s upbringing shaped their outlook on life, but now financial and cultural influences are finally turning in their favor.

Census data shows that Generation X was the first generation to begin to abandon religious beliefs in large numbers, with the majority saying they have no religious beliefs.

What’s more, Spree said, they are less likely to have had any religious experience.

“Baby boomers, on the other hand, grew up in families with more religious beliefs and practices. Even as they become more secular, they often have a background of being involved in religion.”

Yet some cliches are entrenched—while only 16% are current smokers, the “ever smoking” rate among Gen Xers is much higher than among Millennials, who did not grow up with the same fervent cultural belief—regardless of mounting scientific evidence—that smoking makes people cooler.

Today, though, Gen Xers seem less sure about marijuana use. A post-election survey by Election Guide found that only a slim majority of people aged 40 to 49 (Gen Xers) voted to legalize marijuana in the unsuccessful 2020 referendum, compared with 68% of people aged 30 to 39 (Millennials).

The Pew Research Center, a longtime U.S. think tank specializing in generational research, says: “When we see younger people holding different views than older people, it may be driven by their demographic characteristics rather than the fact that they belong to a particular generation.” In other words, no matter how opposed to conservatism your generation may be at the outset, the trend toward conservatism seems inevitable.

We are 60 now.

The really good news for older Gen Xers is that — along with the baby boomers — “they’re going to be the healthiest, wealthiest generation we’ve seen in their 60s and 70s,” Spoonley said.

However, within groups, there are always differences.

The world-renowned longitudinal Dunedin Study tracked more than 1000 people born in Dunedin in 1972 and 1973 – a group right in the middle of Generation X.

Professor Moana Theodore, who led the study, said the study began its latest round of surveys in April this year and began to focus on the ageing process and experiences of participants, who are now 52 years old.

As part of each round of assessments, researchers evaluated participants’ overall physical health, including heart, kidney, lung, dental and cognitive function.

“The subjects’ chronological age was 52, but over time we were able to get a sense of their biological age,” said Theodore.

“We found that some members of the study had biological ages that were much younger than others.”

She said poverty at a young age was crucial to the health of Generation X as they grew up.

“The members of our study who grew up in poverty … were more likely to have worse health by midlife.”

The difference persisted even when the subjects grew up to be better off economically. “They still had worse health outcomes than kids who were not born into poor families.”

Theodore said another very interesting finding from the study was that over time, 86% of participants experienced a diagnosable mental health issue at some stage. For some, it was only temporary, while others continued to experience it throughout adolescence and adulthood.

The Dunedin study was not a comparative study, so it can’t show whether Gen Xers experience more or less mental health issues than other generations. But Theodore said it still reveals something important about the human experience.

“When you think about what’s normal and what’s not normal, I think the stigma that we still have would be broken down…if we knew that almost everyone has experienced this.”

For Theodore, herself a member of Generation X, the life trajectories of the Dunedin Study members are a far cry from Troy Dell’s nihilistic views.

“People from all walks of life (participate in each round of surveys) understand that what they do will not only improve the lives of other people, but also the lives of the next generation.”

Generation X: 50 pieces of art from the Chartwell Collection, The exhibition opens at Te Papa on Saturday 27 July and runs until 20 October.