Historical generation · 1883–1900
Lost Generation
The Lost Generation came before the Greatest Generation: born 1883 to 1900, they came of age in the 1900s and 1910s and fought in the First World War.
The Lost Generation is generally defined as people born from 1883 to 1900, the definition of William Strauss and Neil Howe. Pew Research Center does not use it: Pew counts everyone born before 1928 as the Greatest Generation.
The birth years, source by source
No authority settles these boundaries, so here is every range we could read on the source itself, with the age that range gives in 2026.
| Source | Birth years | Age in 2026 | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| William Strauss and Neil Howe, Generations (1991), as cited by Wikipedia | 1883–1900 | 126–143 | 1991 |
| Pew Research Center (no Lost Generation; Greatest is "born before 1928") | Before 1928 = Greatest Generation | — | 3 September 2015 |
What the sources claim
- Came of age in the 1900s and 1910s, and fought in the First World War. — Wikipedia, Lost Generation
- The name is credited to Gertrude Stein and was spread by Ernest Hemingway's epigraph to The Sun Also Rises (1926). — Wikipedia, Lost Generation
Read this before quoting it
Anyone born in 1900 would be 126 in 2026, so this is a historical label.
Generational labels describe averages across many people. They are useful shorthand and useless for judging any one person.
Birth years covered by any source
Highlighted: 1883–1900, the range used here.
Frequently asked
What years is the Lost Generation?
1883 to 1900, in the definition of William Strauss and Neil Howe.
What generation is someone born in 1900?
The Lost Generation in Strauss and Howe's definition (1883–1900). This site starts the Greatest Generation in 1901; Pew counts everyone born before 1928 as the Greatest Generation, which would include 1900.