Brock Cropp born at Port Macquarie Base Hospital is one of Australia's newest Alpha babies.
SMARTER, richer, healthier - and lonelier. Meet the Alpha babies, the product of the nation's second baby boom.
With around 300,000 children born in the past year, they have easily eclipsed the original baby boomer generation, which began in 1947 with just 182,000 births.
Demographers have dubbed them Generation Alpha, and just like the original baby boomers they are poised on the brink of an age of massive technological and social change.
Their lifestyles will be lavish, with the best standards of living ever, and they will have the highest level of formal education in history. Submerged in technology from day one, they will remain connected to a worldwide electronic network 24/7.
But these advancements will come at a cost - Generation Alpha is likely to spend more time in childcare, can expect to work longer hours and to pay millions for an average home.
They could also be the loneliest generation, more likely to live alone and with two in five unlikely to marry.
While their parents and grandparents are most likely to die of heart disease and stroke, Alzheimers disease is set to take over as the number one cause of death in their lifetime.
On the upside, they can expect to live to 90 years of age and take advantage of huge leaps in genetic medicine.
Professor of Demography and Director of the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, Peter McDonald, said Generation Alpha, which began in 2010, will be the smartest generation so far.
"Absolutely they will be smarter,'' Professor McDonald said. ''Their access to information is huge compared to the past, it is at their fingertips.''
Parents of Alpha children will indulge them in more formal education and at an earlier age.
''Their formal education has never been equalled in the history of the world,'' said Mark McCrindle of McCrindle Research.
But Macquarie University demographer Dr Nicki Parr said the weight of numbers will put enormous pressure on childcare and schooling in the coming decade.
''They will grow up a large generation and business and marketers will pay attention to them, but there will be pressures on living standards, childcare costs and schooling,'' Dr Parr said.
KPMG demographer Bernard Salt said Alpha babies would more than likely be an only child and lack an extended family, leaving them vulnerable to little emperor syndrome.
''They won't grow up in the same family embrace that preceding generations lived in,'' Mr Salt said. ''You are the star from age three and you know you are the star so you grow up with a sense of self importance.''
And Monash University Associate Faculty of Education Associate Dean Professor Lucas Walsh said while much focus was given to the wealth and materialism of Generation Alpha, data suggested there were growing divisions between young people in remote areas and Indigenous young Australians.
"For the next generation it's not going to be all rosy, there are certain proportions of young people that experience marginalisation and the gaps will continue to grow."
When News Limited talked to the parents of Gen Alpha babies born over 100 days, many nominated technology as the single biggest difference between their childhood and that of their newborns.
''And they can intuitively use it,'' said Mr McCrindle. ''That wasn't the case with the previous generation who had to log on with usernames, this generation can just swipe - it's touch screen, it's intuitive smart technology that crosses language barriers.''
Quantitative Sociologist Dr Roger Putulny, from Wollongong University in New South Wales said this generation will live and breathe technology.
''Kids will be permanently connected through Google glasses,'' he said, adding that technology will also impact the job market significantly.
''3D printing will change jobs so a lot of jobs will become more design focused,'' Dr Putulny said.
''Aussie adults - already working long hours today - will work even longer hours in the future and a drop in well-being becomes a real possibility.''
Most Alphas are born to parents who married at age 29 for men and 28 for women, with mum's giving birth to her first child at age 28.
Alphas will stay at home until their mid to late 20s, mostly due to house prices. Many parents nominate buying a house as one of the biggest challenges their kids will face.
The majority of children will be born to married parents, but two out of every five Alphas will never marry. Already, one in four women will never have children, but that is likely to increase.
Women currently give birth in their late 20s and early 30s, but Professor McDonald sees a shift to women giving birth younger.
''We've been through a generation of those who want to have children after they establish their career, but now there is a concern to combine work with family, so we might be more creative in the future and not delaying babies until much later,'' Prof McDonald said.
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