Born in the 1980s

The world they were born into

The 1980s began the personal computer era: IBM's PC went on sale in 1981, the year MTV began broadcasting music videos. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster happened in 1986. HIV and AIDS were identified early in the decade. In South Africa successive states of emergency were declared from 1985, and the decade ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

Growing up

Live Aid was broadcast around the world in 1985. Children of the 1980s grew up with home video, personal stereos, home computers and games consoles, and were between one and eleven years old when the World Wide Web was opened to the public in 1991.

Which generation

Births in 1980 belong to Generation X, and from 1981 to 1989 to the Millennials. The boundaries are conventions rather than facts, and the generations page names the source for each one. Where the tables disagree about the 1980s:

• 1981. Pew's first Millennial year. Tables that start the Millennials in 1980 or 1982 disagree.

The marked line is 1980, where the decade begins.

Year by year

The Chinese year begins not on 1 January but at a new moon, usually the second after the December solstice, and from 1900 to 2100 always between 21 January and 20 February. In the 1980s it began as early as 25 January, in 1982, and as late as 20 February, in 1985, so a birthday in January or early February belongs to the animal of the year before. The table gives the day each year began.

New year dates are worked out from the new moons and the solar terms, and checked against published tables. Born before the new year →

Read on

• Generation X
• Millennials
• How generations are defined
• The 1970s
• The 1990s
• Every year