Born in the 1990s

The world they were born into

The 1990s opened with Nelson Mandela's release from prison in February 1990 and brought South Africa's first democratic election in April 1994 and the Rugby World Cup it hosted and won in 1995. The Soviet Union dissolved at the end of 1991. The World Wide Web was opened to the public in 1991 and spread quickly through the rest of the decade.

Growing up

Mobile phones went from rare to common in many countries, and Google was founded in 1998. The first Harry Potter book was published in 1997. Children of the 1990s were between seven and seventeen when the first iPhone went on sale in 2007; Pew Research Center, which starts Generation Z in 1997, notes that its oldest members were ten that year.

Which generation

Births from 1990 to 1996 belong to the Millennials, and from 1997 to 1999 to Generation Z. The boundaries are conventions rather than facts, and the generations page names the source for each one. Where the tables disagree about the 1990s:

• 1997 to 2000. Pew puts 1997 to 2000 in Generation Z. Definitions that end the Millennials in 2000 put these years with the Millennials.

The marked line is 1990, 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 1990s it began as early as 23 January, in 1993, and as late as 19 February, in 1996, 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

• Millennials
• Generation Z
• How generations are defined
• The 1980s
• The 2000s
• Every year