Birth year · Greatest Generation · 1901–1927
Born into a world of 1.64 billion people.
Someone born in 1901 is the Greatest Generation, the generation born 1901–1927. Pew Research Center counts everyone born before 1928 as the Greatest Generation. Someone born in 1901 turns 125 in 2026. US national birth counts from the National Center for Health Statistics begin in 1909. There is no UN estimate of worldwide births before 1950.
| World population | 1.64 billion |
| Babies born worldwide | n/a |
| Babies born in the United States | n/a |
| Children per woman, worldwide | n/a |
| Life expectancy at birth, worldwide | n/a |
The UN's World Population Prospects, the source of the worldwide births, fertility and life-expectancy figures on the pages from 1950, starts in 1950, so those rows read n/a here rather than carry an estimate of ours. World population is Our World in Data's long-run series, which uses Gapminder's estimates for the years before 1950. US births are the National Center for Health Statistics series, which starts in 1909 and is adjusted for under-registration until 1958. Pages before 1950 list no events: we add history only where each item has been checked.
Age 18 — already passed
Age 21 — already passed
Age 30 — already passed
Age 40 — already passed
Age 50 — already passed
Age 60 — already passed
Age 65 — already passed
Age 70 — already passed
Age 80 — already passed
Age 90 — already passed
Age 100 — already passed
The cohort this year belongs to
Born between 1901 and 1927 and named by Tom Brokaw. Fewer than five million are still alive, all of them aged 99 or over.
Cohort boundaries are hard lines drawn through a continuous thing. A child born a day before or after one of them lands in a different generation with an identical childhood.
United States · Social Security Administration
The most common names given to babies born in the US in 1901 were Mary for girls and John for boys.
| Rank | Girls | Boys |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mary | John |
| 2 | Helen | William |
| 3 | Anna | James |
| 4 | Margaret | George |
| 5 | Ruth | Charles |
| 6 | Elizabeth | Joseph |
| 7 | Marie | Robert |
| 8 | Florence | Frank |
| 9 | Ethel | Edward |
| 10 | Lillian | Henry |
Source: US Social Security Administration, from Social Security card applications. United States only; spellings are counted separately. Names by year and generation
They are the Greatest Generation, the cohort born from 1901 to 1927. Pew Research Center counts everyone born before 1928 as the Greatest Generation.
They turn 125 during 2026, or are already 125 if their birthday has passed.
There is no national US count: the National Center for Health Statistics series starts in 1909. There is no comparable worldwide figure: UN World Population Prospects, the source of the worldwide count on later years, starts in 1950, and we do not estimate one.
About 1.64 billion, from Our World in Data's long-run population series, which uses Gapminder's estimates for the years before 1950.
Greatest Generation. 1901 is the first year of Greatest Generation and Lost Generation ends in 1900. People born near a boundary often identify with both, and the line is a convention rather than a measured break.
Jump to another year