The story behind the timeline
About GennyPop.
GennyPop is an independently created website for exploring generations, their birth years and how a hypothetical world population could change over time.
Every generation. Every second.
From the Greatest Generation to possible future generations, GennyPop makes it easy to explore birth-year ranges, find your generation and imagine changes across a living timeline. Our generation categories are conventions, not universal rules, and proposed future labels may change.
How the population figures work
GennyPop uses an original illustrative population simulation rather than importing population estimates from third-party demographic datasets.
The model begins with a hypothetical world population of 1.6 billion in 1901. It calculates births and age-related deaths year by year using chosen assumptions, then tracks simulated survivors by birth year and groups them into generations.
Its counters update using your browser's clock. The Population Time Machine follows the same simulation from 1901 to 2100.
A note about accuracy
Population numbers may be inaccurate.
These figures are not census results, official projections, verified historical records or real-time registrations of births and deaths. They are a way to explore a mathematical scenario, and may differ substantially from actual population figures.
For the assumptions, calculation steps and limitations, see the methodology sections on our Population by Generation page.
How GennyPop was created
GennyPop is an independent project created with assistance from OpenAI's ChatGPT. ChatGPT helped with the website's code, design and the illustrative mathematical model, based on the creator's ideas and direction.
GennyPop is not affiliated with, endorsed by or an official publication of OpenAI, ChatGPT or demographic research organisations.
The population calculations do not use external demographic datasets. Like many websites, GennyPop does use external services for hosting and visitor analytics; these are explained in our Privacy & Analytics notice.