Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future

by Jean M. Twenge

In the 1970s and 1980s, Americans with a college education were more likely to be Republican, and those without a college education were more likely to be Democrats. For a period in the 1990s and 2000s, party affiliation and education weren’t connected. Then, around 2015, just as many Millennials were forming their political identities during young adulthood, the association between politics and education suddenly flipped: Those without a four-year college education became steadily more likely to identify as Republicans, and those with a four-year college education became steadily less likely (see Figure 5.54). In 2020, the split in political party affiliation by education was the largest among Millennials: Those without a college degree were 15 percentage points more likely to be Republican than those without, compared to a 9-point spread among Gen X’ers. So not only are generations increasingly polarized in their politics, but politics are increasingly polarized by education within each generation.