(Vivan Marwaha is the author of What Millennials Want: Decoding the Largest Generation in the World. The column was first published in The Hindu on September 4, 2021)
- Born between 1981 and 1996, roughly numbering more than 440 million, they are, without any doubt, the largest millennial cohort on the planet. Like every other generation in India, millennials are incredibly diverse: with not just significant economic division, but also important linguistic, regional, caste, gender and religious differences, which make the generation difficult to understand as a cohesive group. Yet, millennials have the potential to be India’s most significant generation. If you’re not convinced about why they could become the country’s most important — and potentially most disruptive — generation, consider some of these numbers. India’s median age, according to a 2021 estimate by the CIA World Factbook, is 28 years. This means that half of its population is under 28. By contrast, the median age in the world’s top three economies — namely, the U.S., China, and Japan — is 38, 37 and 47 years respectively. Among the top 10 economies in the world, India has the youngest population followed distantly by Brazil, which has a median age of 32 years. By the end of 2021, two-thirds of India’s population will be within the working age of 20 to 35 years.
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