Only a quarter of young people in Europe believe their generation will one day be better off than their parents, according to the "Young Europe" youth study published on Wednesday in Berlin.
The study, from the tourism company TUI's Foundation, has been produced annually since 2017. It found that 52% of respondents aged 16 to 26 assume their situation will worsen.
Young Europeans less optimistic than 10 years ago
According to the report, the pollster YouGov surveyed a total of 8,024 people aged 16 to 26 online between April 24 and May 21 who live in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland and the United Kingdom. The results are representative of the resident population in this age group.
In the 10-year comparison, young Europeans' view of their own future has deteriorated. While 70% said in 2017 that they looked to the future with optimism, that figure was only 57% this year.
In Germany, the decline was particularly marked, the study said, going from 64% in 2017 to 52% now.
Less trust in how democracy works
Half of the young Europeans surveyed consider democracy to be the best form of government. However, 28% rate democracy as neither better nor worse than other systems and 9% prefer other forms of government.
In Germany, the downward trend is particularly clear: in 2022, 63% still considered democracy to be the best form of government, while only 53% do so this year. In addition, young Germans (36%) are more open to other forms of government than democracy compared with the overall population (20%).
At the same time, dissatisfaction with how democracy works in everyday life is growing, with only about a quarter (26%) of young Europeans satisfied with it in their respective countries. The highest approval ratings were in Germany (35%) and the UK (39%).
Compared with 2018, the share of those dissatisfied has risen in Germany, France, Italy and Greece. In Poland and the UK, young citizens are more satisfied with how democracy works, by contrast.
"The younger generation is not sceptical of democracy on principle but it has lost trust," said political scientist Thorsten Faas of the Free University of Berlin, who accompanied the study academically. Young people judge democracy more on the basis of outcomes.
