Recode age or birth year into a generational cohort

Maps either an age (converted to a birth year using a reference year) or a birth year directly onto a generational cohort such as Millennial or Gen Z. Text input like "34 years" is salvaged with ensure_numeric().

Usage

recode_generation(x, input = c("age", "year"), year = NULL, scheme = NULL)

Arguments

x

A numeric (or coercible) vector of ages or birth years.

input

What x represents: "age" (default) or "year" (birth year).

year

Reference year for the age-to-birth-year conversion. If NULL (default), uses the current_year option (see ezrsurvey_options()) or the system year.

scheme

Either a scheme name passed to generation_scheme() (default from the generation_scheme option) or your own data frame with from and label columns.

Value

A factor of cohort labels, levels from the oldest cohort to the youngest; values outside the scheme's range become NA.

Details

When input = "age", the birth year is year - age, where year defaults to the current_year option or the system year – so set ezrsurvey_options(current_year = 2026) to keep results stable across runs. When input = "year", x is treated as the birth year directly. The birth year is then bucketed into the scheme's cohorts (see generation_scheme()); birth years before the earliest cohort return NA. Use this for generational reporting; for simple age bands use recode_age().

See also

generation_scheme(), recode_age(), ezrsurvey_options().

Other recode: add_region(), bin_numeric(), clean_label(), drop_items(), ensure_numeric(), generation_scheme(), na_blank(), nps_group(), recode_age(), recode_likert(), recode_region(), split_multi()

Examples

recode_generation(c(1990, 2001, 1968), input = "year")
#> [1] Millennial Gen Z      Gen X     
#> Levels: Silent Baby Boomer Gen X Millennial Gen Z Gen Alpha

# from age, with an explicit reference year
recode_generation(c(36, 25), input = "age", year = 2026)
#> [1] Millennial Gen Z     
#> Levels: Silent Baby Boomer Gen X Millennial Gen Z Gen Alpha