Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials pick better passwords than Gen Z - but they're all still bad

[midian182]

Facepalm: There's a long-standing stereotype that the older someone is, the less tech-savvy they are. But it appears that this generalization isn't always accurate, especially when it comes to passwords. However, the universal constant between all generations is that most people still pick crap credentials.

The latest common password list comes from NordPass – its seventh edition of the annual report. The company decided to do something a little different this year by including the most popular passwords among multiple generations.

All the groups' passwords are bad, of course, but some generations are slightly worse than others.

You might expect Generation Z – those born between 1997 and 2007 – to have the most secure passwords, having grown up during the internet age. But the group appears to be the worst of the bunch.

The pathetic '12345' is the most common entry among the youngest group. Sequential numbers starting from 1 appear six times in the top ten, while the ever-awful 'password' is fifth. There are some age-appropriate entries, such as 'skibidi' and 'assword.'

Gen Z's most popular "asswords," obviously

Millennials (1981 – 1996) don't fare much better, but at least the most popular password here has an extra digit (123456). Sequential numbers make up most of this list, though it also includes the mildly-harder-to-guess Contraseña and mustufaj.

Hang your heads in shame, Millennials

More names appear in the Gen X (1965 – 1980) list, and they make up seven of the top Baby boomer (1946 – 1964) entries. Even the Silent generation (born before 1946) prefers to use names over numbers.

Gen X is slightly better

NordPass notes that variations of the most common first names and surnames in each country often appear in the region's most-popular passwords lists, e.g., kristian123.

Here comes the Boom(ers)

The fact that 12345 or 123456 were the most popular choices among all generations is a sadly familiar sight. It was only earlier this month when Comparitech's password list, aggregated from more than 2 billion real account passwords, showed that 123456 was the most commonly used.

The Silent generation of Abe Simpson

NordPass worked with NordStellar on the report, analysing public data breaches and dark web repositories from September 2024 to September 2025 to identify statistically aggregated data. Corresponding metadata, including dates of birth where applicable, were reviewed to assign passwords to age groups.

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Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials pick better passwords than Gen Z – but they're all still bad

 

[SirDigby]

Wonder why the high occurrence of female names?

 

[Dreadcthulhu]

Wonder why the high occurrence of female names?

I would wager that women are more likely to use their own name then men, with a side of when men do use a name for a password they are more likely to use their gf/wife over their own.

 

[TechSam]

I've only recently moved myself and a handful of my tracked Google logins onto a password manager. Thanks to passkeys and bio authentication it's easy to use super complex passwords now.

 

[pcnthuziast]

My strategy has always been to make my passwords very complex AND to make my usernames equally complex.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Wonder why the high occurrence of female names?

Boomers named everything after women, despite supposedly hating women so much. Their cars, their boats, their favorite tools, all had womens names. Perhaps a side effect of having actual testosterone when they were younger.

That behavior followed into the password era.

 

[Win7User]

Gen Z's, are arrogant, entitled and mostly lazy. Not, to mention indoctrinated, they were taught what to think, never how to think! And, these fools will be running this entire country (work force) in a few years! What, a scary thought...

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Gen Z's, are arrogant, entitled and mostly lazy. Not, to mention indoctrinated, they were taught what to think, never how to think! And, these fools will be running this entire country (work force) in a few years! What, a scary thought...

Found the Gen xer.

Gen Z is outpacing millennials for their age and are helping to fill in the skill trade gap that's been warned about for decades. Half of Gen z have work ethics that put boomers to shame, but refuse to be used by their employers like previous generations.

 

[Win7User]

Found the Gen xer.

Gen Z is outpacing millennials for their age and are helping to fill in the skill trade gap that's been warned about for decades. Half of Gen z have work ethics that put boomers to shame, but refuse to be used by their employers like previous generations.

Yep, can't live with them, can't kill them.

 

[p51d007]

Ldiots like these, should make their password the word INCORRECT.
That way, when they type it wrong, the pop up will say:
"your password is INCORRECT"

 

[Axiarus]

Here is one of my passwords a5kY4ze6Eh@n

 

[captaincranky]

Boomers named everything after women, despite supposedly hating women so much. Their cars, their boats, their favorite tools, all had womens names. Perhaps a side effect of having actual testosterone when they were younger.

That behavior followed into the password era.

This is easily explicable in that there was too much stigma attached to even acknowledge that another man was "handsome". You would immediately be branded as homosexual, in much more pejorative terms**. So, to show people you were, "a real men", you named everything you owned after the trollop du jour.

**You know, the "F' word that didn't end with a "K".

What is paradoxical, is that wives were commonly referred to as,"the old ball and chain". (But only when they weren't around), On women's part there was the, "Honey do list". Honey do this, honey do that, ad infinitum.

Are things really that different these days? I guess Gen Z would have to put down their game controllers and climb out of the basement to find out