Topic hub
Generational statistics, with sources
Population, screen time, education and spending figures for Alpha and Beta — every number dated and attributed.
Every figure in this hub carries a source and a date: 26 statistics pages, 17 country data tables and 6 live counters, with the method shown wherever a number is modelled rather than measured.
Most generational statistics circulating online have been through three retellings and lost their source, their year and often a decimal place.
Everything in this hub carries a source and a date. Where we model a figure rather than cite one, the method is on the methodology page and the inputs are visible. Where sources disagree, we say which we used and why.
What we cover here
- Live population counters for both cohorts
- Cohort sizes by country and region
- Screen time, education and technology figures
- Wealth, fertility and dependency projections
- How to check a statistic before repeating it
Articles in this hub
The Myopia Boom: Why More Kids Need Glasses and What to Do
Kids' nearsightedness has nearly doubled in 50 years. Here is what science says about outdoor time, screens, and…
UK Fertility Rate 2025: Record Lows in England, Wales and Scotland
England and Wales fell to a provisional 1.39 children per woman in 2025 and Scotland to 1.23, both…
How Many Children Are There in the World? About 1.98 Billion
About 1.98 billion people are under 15, roughly one in four. Half are in eight countries, and India…
Seven Named Generations Are Alive Right Now, Spanning Ninety-Eight Years
A Generation Beta baby and a Silent Generation grandparent are both alive today, 98 years apart. Here is…
Three Different Numbers Are All Called "The Birth Rate"
China ranks 2nd in the world for annual births and 191st of 194 for fertility. Same country, opposite…
The Countries That Break the Pattern Are the Ones Worth Looking At
Most country indicators move together. Uzbekistan finishes school like a rich country on a fertility rate of 3.4,…
Boys' Names Barely Moved for Eighty Years, Then Broke
From 1880 to 1930 the US boys' top ten changed by 0 to 1 names a decade. Since…
Eighty-Eight of 194 Countries Are Already Past the Demographic Transition
Classify every country by fertility and 88 sit in the declining stage — the largest group by far.…
Seventeen Country Indicators, But Far Fewer Independent Facts
Under-15 share and fertility rate correlate at 0.95 across 194 countries. Several of our own rankings are close…
In Sixty Countries There Are More Than Fifty Children per Hundred Adults
The Central African Republic has 99 under-15s per 100 working-age adults. South Korea has 16 — the same…
Six Things This Site Cannot Tell You
Screen time is missing for 152 of 194 countries and childhood cost for 133. No page carries a…
World Births Peaked in 2015 and Have Fallen Every Year Since
140.2 million babies were born in 2015, the highest year on record in this series. Every year since…
How the Live Counters Work, and Which Digits Actually Mean Anything
Six counters run on this site, all from one anchor plus a rate. Only the leading three digits…
Only Three of Eight World Regions Will Have More Children in 2040
Sub-Saharan Africa is up 24% by 2040. East Asia is down 24%. Five of the eight world regions…
Five Countries Will Produce Two-Fifths of Generation Beta
India, Nigeria, China, Pakistan and DR Congo account for about 40% of all projected Gen Beta births. The…
Eight Generations, 139 Birth Years, and Which Comparisons Actually Mean Anything
There are 28 possible generation pairings. Most compare cohorts that never shared adult life, and the bands themselves…
Children Are the Poorest Age Group in Almost Every Country That Measures It
Roughly one in six children lives in extreme poverty and children are about half of the extreme poor.…
Baby Boomers Hold Half the World's Wealth and Are a Seventh of Its People
Boomers are about 14% of the population and hold about 50% of global wealth. Gen Alpha holds under…
What a Country's Median Age Tells You, and What It Hides
Median age runs from 15 to 53. It predicts schools, workforces and pension bills better than any other…
Why Is the Birth Rate Falling? What the Data Supports, and What Is Guesswork
Fertility is falling almost everywhere, and the confident single-cause explanations do not survive the country data. Here is…
How Many Gen Alpha Are There? The 2026 Numbers, With Sources
Generation Alpha is the largest generation alive. The figure, where it comes from, where the cohort lives, and…
How Big Will Generation Beta Be? Doing the Arithmetic Properly
The 2.1 billion figure everyone quotes assumes fertility holds. It has not been. Here is the calculation, the…
How Many Babies Are Born Every Day? The Numbers, and Where They Come From
About 363,000 a day, 4.2 a second, 132.5 million a year — and every one of them is…
Gen Alpha Screen Time Statistics (2026), With the Caveats Attached
The daily hours by age and country, what the guidance says, and the three reasons every one of…
Tools for this topic
AI in Schools Chart
Share of secondary students using AI for schoolwork, and share of schools…
Attention vs Sleep Chart
Reported sustained-attention minutes against nightly sleep hours, by age.
Birth Timing Probability
The odds of being born into a given generation, month or day…
Births by Region Chart
Share of the world's 132.5 million annual births by region, every one…
Births Per Second by Country
The birth rate of any country expressed in every unit that makes…
Births Per Year Map
Annual births by country, the input that fills Generation Beta — 132.5…
Births So Far This Year
Babies born in a country since 1 January, counting live at that…
Child Population Change Map
Projected change in the under-15 population between now and 2040. Blue is…
Children by Region Chart
Where the world's under-15s actually live, by region — and which region…
Statistic Citation Generator
Generate a properly formatted citation for any figure on this site, in…
Class Size Chart
Average primary class size across major education systems, and what falling birth…
Cohort Lifetime Carbon Estimate
Estimated lifetime emissions for a birth cohort under different policy paths.
Frequently asked
Can I cite these figures?
Yes, free of charge including commercially, with a credit and a link to the page you took it from.
How is the live counter calculated?
Each cohort is anchored to a published estimate and advanced second by second using UN World Population Prospects birth and mortality rates. The full method is on our methodology page.
Why do your numbers differ from other sites?
Usually because of generation boundaries. Sites using the Pew definition put 2010–2012 births in Gen Z; we follow McCrindle, which puts them in Generation Alpha.