FARMINGTON, CT — Which generation was most represented among visitors to Farmington's Barney Library this summer?
Library staff decided to find out with a colorful experiment tied to the library's "Throwback Summer."
Visitors were asked to place a colored pom-pom into a jar corresponding to their generation.
With the results now counted, Generation Alpha — children born from 2013 through 2024 — finished far ahead of the competition.
Generation Alpha recorded 237 pom-poms, followed by Millennials, born from 1981 through 1996, with 149.
Generation X (1965-1980) finished third with 49 pom-poms, followed by Generation Z (1997-2012) with 41 and Baby Boomers (1946-1964) with 38.
The youngest group, Generation Beta (2025-today), recorded 16 pom-poms, while the Silent Generation (1928-1945) had nine.
"To no one's surprise, those Gen Alpha Kids and their Millennial parents blew away the competition!" the library said in announcing the results.
The final tally was:
Altogether, visitors contributed 539 pom-poms to the project.
The informal activity was designed to give the library a snapshot of the generations visiting during its Throwback Summer programming rather than to serve as a scientific measurement of overall library use.
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