Philly is in its millennial era: People born between 1981 and 1996 make up the largest portion of city residents

Millennials make up the largest portion of Philadelphia’s population, according to U.S. Census data and data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The generation took the lead at the start of the century in Philadelphia, and its dominance has only grown.

Sarah and Brandon Gulish, both 39, moved to Philly for college in 2004. After graduating, they got married and wanted to find a permanent home in the city. Fishtown offered what they were looking for: affordable real estate and music venues where their band, New Enemies, could play. They bought their first house in the neighborhood in 2014.

The Gulishs are part of the first wave of millennials that came to Philly in the early aughts, flooding the city with PBRs and fixie bikes.

“My background is in film and television so I tried New York. I did internships in Los Angeles, but I chose to commute to New York a lot because I just really loved Philly,” said Brandon Gulish. It was the people and the community they built at Temple that rooted them here, he said.

Unlike past generations, the number of millennials living in Philadelphia increased year-over-year as they aged from their early 20s into their 30s. And the city is getting older with them.

Today, more than 400,000 millennials live in Philadelphia — many still in skinny jeans with two recessions under their belt. The generation makes up about 27% of city residents, according to 2023 Census data and NIH data.

Generations do not cover the same number of years — Gen Z (born 1997 to 2012), millennials (1981 to 1996), and Gen X (1965 to 1980) — each span 15 years, while baby boomers (1946 to 1964) span 18 years, according to the Pew Research Center. Still, they hold a cultural significance that makes them a worthwhile lens through which to look at population change.

Population growth since 2006 in Philadelphia has been driven by U.S.-born millennials and immigrants, many of whom are also millennials, said Katie Martin, project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Alondra Ugalde-Ruiz, 29, relocated to Philadelphia from McAllen, Texas, three years ago for her husband’s job, but after arriving, the couple divorced. Ugalde-Ruiz was left with a decision: Where was the best place to live and raise her two daughters as a single mom?

“I had the option to go back to south Texas to raise my kids and be near family,” she said, but she likes where she lives in Fishtown, and the diversity of the city. Originally from Mexico and now working as a bilingual teacher, she also thinks that there are more career opportunities here.

As millennials slide into middle age, they continue to stay in the city. In 2020, 30- to 34-year-old Philly residents became the city’s biggest age bracket, making up more than 147,000 residents.

There are two main reasons the city is getting older, according to Martin. Baby boomers and the Silent Generation are living longer and millennials, who make up a large portion of the city, are aging.

And as life expectancy increases, Philly’s older population is growing, as well. There are more than 230,000 residents 65 years and older now, compared with a little more than 190,000 10 years ago.

In 2023, the average age of Philly was 35 years old. A decade ago, it was 33.

More baby boomers and Gen Xers left Philly throughout their 20s and 30s than millennials, many heading for the suburbs.

It’s common knowledge that boomers embraced the suburbs, but, Gen X did, as well; there is a noticeable growth of Gen X in the Pennsylvania suburbs surrounding Philly about 1999.

Katie McCann is a 32-year-old real estate agent for Philly Home Girls, an agency that serves a younger clientele, including millennials — mostly first-time homebuyers in their 20s and 30s. She has not sold a single home in the suburbs since starting in the industry in 2019.

“There is more imagination in our generation, more room for us to explore,” said McCann.

When Leigh Calarco unexpectedly got pregnant with twins in 2017 at 35, she remembers coming home crying. “Do I have to move to the suburbs then?” she said.

She and her husband had started a property management company in Philadelphia, MGC Real Estate Group, five years prior.

“We really had committed to being, like, ‘OK, we started this business, and we don’t want to live our life on 676 and 76 everyday,’” she said. “We’re going to try to make it work and really stay here and be here and commit to it.”

While millennials surpassed baby boomers as the largest generation across the United States in 2019, baby boomers are still the largest generation in Pennsylvania.

Baby boomers make up 22% of the state’s population, millennials make up 21%.

Philadelphia is made up of 18% baby boomers and 27% millennials, by comparison.

The suburban counties surrounding Philadelphia follow a similar pattern to the state. Baby boomers make up 22% of the collar counties, while 20% are millenials.

For three New Jersey counties surrounding Philadelphia — Camden, Gloucester and Burlington — boomers make up an even larger share than the Pennsylvania suburbs — 26% of the population, while millennials make up 19% of the New Jersey suburbs.

As some millennials postpone having children, or forgo it altogether, the number of babies in Philadelphia has remained relatively stagnant.

There are now fewer than 20,000 children under the age of 1 in Philly, the lowest number in more than 50 years, according to NIH data.

“When I was in my late teens and early 20s, I had a very strict plan for what I wanted to achieve when,” said Bryant Edwards, 32, who moved to Philadelphia to work in the nonprofit sector in 2014 and resides in Kensington.

His plan was to establish his career and start a family at the age of 25.

“Once I got into the real world for so many, many reasons, I found it hard. ... We’ve been through how many recessions, we are saddled with boundless debt that I can’t even describe. It feels like this hole you’re sinking into,” he said. “So I couldn’t imagine affording to raise a family without also having to sacrifice some passions, which I haven’t been willing to yet.”

As millennials age and more start having families, the big question is whether or not they stick around Philly.

More recently, in 2021, the growth of millennials in Philadelphia slowed, and began trending slightly downward for the first time.

There is a community of young families in Philadelphia that have put a stake in the ground, said McCann, and millennials are choosing to stay in the city for a variety of reasons.

The Gulishes love their local public school, Adair Elementary, and want all three of their children to attend.

Ugalde-Ruiz, who moved from South Texas, does not want to give up the convenience of city life and having access to public transportation.

“Some people want to move out of the city, because of the crime rates or things like that,” she said, “but I want people to see the beauty of it.”