NEWS // China’s post-90s generation

McKinsey&Company has researched the consumer attitudes of China’s post-90s generation. It concludes that these 20-somethings are “emerging as a new engine of consumption.”

Note that the grey bars represent everyone who responded to the survey, regardless of age. The colored bars represent individuals in the post-90s category.

Not the U.S.'s millennial

Our research this year [2017] shed new light on one of the fastest-growing and increasingly influential segments of Chinese consumers—what we call the “post-90s” generation. While many reports in recent years have grouped China’s younger generation under the familiar term millennials, this term doesn’t fully capture the unique attributes of this segment of the population, which we define as people born between 1990 and 1999.

This generation exhibits very different behavior and attitudes not only with older generations of Chinese consumers but also the generation that we call the “post-80s,” which is generally lumped together with the post-90s generation in media reports that cover this topic. They also differ to Western millennials.

20% of China's consumption

The post-90s generation grew up in a China unknown to their parents, one marked by extraordinary levels of wealth, exposure to Western culture, and access to new technologies. Comprising 16 percent of China’s population today, this consumer cohort is, by our projections, going to account for more than 20 percent of total consumption growth in China between now and 2030, higher than any other demographic segment.

Asking them their attitudes toward certain areas of life—success, health, family, brands, and products, and their future—yielded, in many cases, very different answers, which affects how they choose products and services. We sorted them into five distinct segments. (See that attached graphic.)

Source: McKinsey&Company