Generation Y (sometimes referred to as "Millennials" or "Echo Boomers") refers to a specific cohort of individuals born, roughly, between 1980-94. "Generation Y" alludes to a succession from Generation X, a term which was made popular by the Canadian fiction writer Douglas Coupland in 1991.

Generation Y are primarily children of the Baby boomers and Generation Jones (US only), though some are children of older Gen X adults.

A central characteristic of what defines Generation Y is that they have no memory of the Cold War, just as Generation Z has no memory before the War on Terror, and Generation X has no memory of the Vietnam War.