Gen X at Work · one of three stories

Generation X is running British companies.

The 2021 census counted 3,547,854 managers, directors and senior officials in England and Wales. Three in four were aged 35 to 64. The average chief executive of a FTSE 150 company was 56 in April 2025: born in 1969. The chairs average 65, so the generation chairing these companies is not the generation running them.

Nobody has named the generation running them. It was told in the nineties there was no career path and to lay its own. It did. This is where the path went.

Everything filed on this story

2026
In London 37.7 per cent of the people controlling a company are over fifty. In the South West it is 52.2 per centMy count Magnus Wood, Who controls British business, by region, in The Years That Made Us (own count from the Companies House PSC register), 28 Sep 2026Generation X is running British companies.
2026
The median person controlling a substantial British company is 60My count Magnus Wood, Who controls British business, in The Years That Made Us (own count from the Companies House PSC register), 27 Sep 2026Generation X is running British companies.
2026
38.6 per cent of the people controlling a British company were born between 1965 and 1980My count Magnus Wood, Who controls British business, in The Years That Made Us (own count from the Companies House PSC register), 27 Sep 2026Generation X is running British companies.
2026
The median age of the person in control rises from 48 for micro-entities to 62 for full-accounts filersMy count Magnus Wood, Who controls British business, in The Years That Made Us (own count from the Companies House PSC register), 27 Sep 2026Generation X is running British companies.
2023
Average CEO age reached 61 in 2023, study findsHarvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 1 May 2026Generation X is running British companies.
2025
The average FTSE 150 chief executive was born in 1969Spencer Stuart, 2025 UK Board Index, 12 Dec 2025Generation X is running British companies.
2025
Average board director age is 61, Korn Ferry reportsKorn Ferry, 10 Sep 2025Generation X is running British companies.
2021
Three in four managers and directors are aged 35 to 64Office for National Statistics, Census 2021, table RM102, 21 Mar 2021Generation X is running British companies.