How long is a 'Generation'?

Question

How long is a 'Generation'?

Answer 1

Well with lady bugs they can have a couple of generations a year.

With humans I suppose it is a time from the birth of an offspring until that offspring can procreate.

Answer 2

It depends on many factors...

Sexual maturity

Longevity

Contraception

Culture...to name a few.

Cro-Magnon cavemen, 30-40,000 years ago, only lived to be about 25 years of age, due to hygenics, exposure, and not being at the top of the food-chain!

Therefore, when females were sexually mature, at age 12 or so, they would likely start having children, and could have 10 or 12 perhaps in their lifetime. Today, the average age of the first born, in industrialized nations, is 20+ years of age, but we live until about age 70, now-a-days...and women are more commonly still having children into their 40's.

So, a generation varies during the time period, and place where one was born...One could say between 12 & 25 years, on the average...

Answer 3

A generation is not a specific measure of time; or rather there is no agreed upon boundary for any given generation.  A generation (or generational cohort) is the group of all people born at approximately the same time--say all the people around your grandfather's age, then all the people around your father's age, etc.  As you can see, because there is no distinct line determining to which generation someone would belong--there is no precise definition for the length of any given generation.

Answer 4

a generation averages about 25 years from the birth of a parent to the birth of a child, although it varies case by case.

Answer 5

Generally we mean 20 years when we say that word.