And not a year from today.
And Randall Munroe apparently agrees in today’s XKCD.
NB: I do believe our current century started on 1/1/2001. So no, I don’t mind slight seeming inconsistencies in my position.
What do the Teeming Millions think?
I agree. And I’m not always consistent either. For example, I think the 1990s began with Bill Clinton. The first gulf war and Clarence Thomas are still relics of the 1980s decade even though they occurred in the 1990s
2000-2010 was defined by 9/11 changed everything and George W Bush. That happens to fall pretty well within the actual decade bookends.
I don’t even know how to define 2010-2020. Maybe time passing will help, but it was a weird time with the worst of the Great Recession segueing into a huge economic boom. Obama, and Trump.
Agreed on 2001 for the start of the century. In that regard, shouldn’t a decade also end on the 10s, which would make the 1s the start of a decade?
For example, is 2001 (start of century) through 2009 a decade, with the teens starting on 2010? I think you have to go through 2010 before starting the teens.
I don’t know. There was a birthday party this afternoon and I had a couple of martinis. The brain cells are confused and they just want to give up right now. I’m sure you will get better answers.
The 20s start today. The 3rd decade of the 21st century, however, starts next year.
Exactly. “A decade” is any period of 10 years, whether it’s 2020-2029, 2021-2030, or something else. “The '20s” is clearly 2020-2029.
While technically correct that the 21st century began in 2001, it just annoying pedantic by this point. The century changes when the big number does - who cares about a counting decision made nearly 1500 years ago.
Amen, amen. The very name “the 20’s” inarguably can only mean xx20 through xx29. The distinction between, say, the 1900’s and the 20th century is an entirely different matter.
The new century began on 2000 and the new decade begins today. That this means the first century/decade got cheated by a year is someone from 5AD’s problem, not mine.
The Bad Astronomer agrees: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/2010s-or-2020s-some-decadent-thinking
Centuries are 1 based but that doesn’t mean decades can’t be 0 based.
Brian
It’s the twenties now, for sure. I mean, really, when I write the year 2020, there’s a 20 right there at the end. I’m cool with it. Also, .9999 with an infinite number of 9s is slightly less than 1. No problem.
Also, I believe the aeroplane takes off.
I don’t even buy into the notion that it’s “technically correct”.
The terms millennium, century and decade are not used as precise measurements of time in the same way that a kilogram is a precise measure of weight. If I told you my grandma was born a century ago, you would not expect that to mean exactly 1920. If these were precise units of time, then we would say thinks like “1.27 centuries”, and we never do that. These words are only ever used when we are discussing time in some broad sense, emphasizing the scale of time involved, or describing a historical era.
Furthermore, at the turn of the century, the significance is not that we have reached exactly 2000 years since the birth of Christ, we don’t know exactly when he was born anyway. It’s not a system whose purpose is to count up precisely from zero. It seems to me of no significance whatsoever if the first millennium has 999 years or 1000 years.
What we’re celebrating at the turn of the century/millennium is not that we’ve reached an exact number of years since a starting point. It’s the fact that we get a sense of the broad passage of time when the leftmost numbers on our arbitrary date system roll over.
And I can’t believe that 3 people really think “the twenties” doesn’t refer to the years that start with twenty.
This. The first decade / century were 9 / 99 years respectively, having been shorted by whoever made the decision to start counting at 1 rather than 0.
I looked outside and everything was about the same as yesterday, so how can we say the 20’s have started? Everyone’s dressing the same way, listening to the same kind of music, wearing the same hairstyles.
Still looks like the same decade, to me.
Sure, but in the same way if I told you a book weighs a kilogram, you would not expect that to mean exactly 1.000000000000kg
A millennium/century/decade is a very defined and precise amount of time. That doesn’t change, just because we approximate in common parlance.
Then explain why we’d never say something like “he was born 2.43 centuries ago”, or “my son is 1.6 decades old next week”. We’d either say “he was born two-and-a-half centuries ago”, or if we wanted to be precise we’d say 243 years ago.
In practice these terms are never used to refer to a precise amount of time. So why would anyone imagine that the significance of “the turn of the century” is that a precise number of years have passed since some meaningless reference date in the past?
The significance of the turn of the century or millennium is that a big number in our date labeling system is rolling over, giving us a sense of the broad passage of time. Everyone knows that, which is why people rolled their eyes and ignored people who suggested that we should celebrate Jan 1st 2001.
In 1930, people throughout American and the world faced an economy with horror. Does anyone think the Roaring Twenties extended through 1930? 
Shouldn’t a decade worth talking about have its own adjective? We had the Gay 1890’s, the Roaring 1920’s. Any others? And who designed this English language anyway? Twenties, Thirties, Forties all roll off the tongue, but what about Tenties? Zeroties? “The 2000’s” refers to a century (or perhaps a millennium), not a decade.
A counting mistake no less. The Year One was set to 4 years after the Birth of Jesus. Isn’t it exactly as convenient to say that the Year Zero is set to 3 years after the Birth of Jesus? It’s not like first- or second-century Palestinians could get confused about it: Anno Domini was invented centuries later, and — is this true or just an urban legend I made up right now? — became popular only when Charlemagne decided it was real cool that, among all the calendars available for assigning year numbers, in one calendar his coronation took place in the Year 800 exactly.
Dionysius Exiguus came up with the dating scheme in 525, and Bede was using it in the early part of the 8th century, so it was certainly around in ecclesiastical circles. Charlemagne endorsing it a bit later would certainly have helped with wider acceptance.
I go by the numbers. The “twenties” are all of the years where the third digit is a two; 2020, 2021, 2022, up to 2029.
And I’m consistent. Just as I measure years by the fourth digit and decades by the third digit, I measure centuries by the second digit and millennia by the first digit. The third millennium and the twenty-first century began on 1 January 2000, when the date switched from 1 to 2 and 9 to 0. The month of December, the year 1999, the nineties, the twentieth century, and the second millennium all ended on the same day.
“But, Nemo,” you cry, “that won’t work! We didn’t have a year zero!”
Suck it up. I didn’t live back then and neither did you. Why should our calendar be screwed up because of a mistake made centuries ago? Let’s just declare that the first century lasted for ninety-nine years, call it a miracle, and move on.