The years for Generation X vary from one historian, government agency and marketing firm to the next. Neil Howe and the late William Strauss, defined the generation in the broadest terms I have come across: 1961 to 1981. The United States Social Security Administration defines Generation X as “those born roughly between 1964 and 1979, while another federal agency, the U.S. Department of Defense, sets the parameters at 1965 to 1977. But, I don’t see how a generation can only be 15 or 12 years in length. Childhood and youth comprise 18 years of our lives.