In 2018, 18 to 21-year-olds, who were part of Generation Z were more likely to be enrolled in college in comparison to Millennials and Generation X cohorts at a corresponding age. 57 percent of Generation Z was enrolled in college in 2018 compared to 43 percent of Gen Xers in 1987.

According to a survey conducted in 2024, 24 percent of Generation Z students reported that they would be the first in their family to attend college in the United States.

In the United States in 2022, 27 percent of Gen Z respondents said that after thinking of the student loan debt they assumed for their own education, they would have chosen to work more while they were still in school, followed by 26 percent who said that they would have applied for more scholarships.

According to a survey conducted in 2023, 56 percent of Gen Z teenagers in the United States agreed that college was a smart investment in the future while 43 percent believed that college was more of a gamble that may not pay off in the end. Gen Z teens who identified as Democrats were the most likely demographic group to agree that college was a smart investment and Gen Z teens who were White were the most likely to think that college was more of a gamble.

According to a survey conducted in 2024, 84 percent of hiring managers said that recent Generation Z graduates are more likely to expect high salaries than previous generations in the United States. A further 79 percent believed that recent Gen Z grads have a worse work ethic, while 75 percent found them to be more entitled compared to prior generations.

Living conditions and family. Values and attitudes. Information and communication behaviour. Political attitudes and political participation.

Topics: Life circumstances and family: life satisfaction; assessment of personal future prospects; assessment of future prospects of own generation; relationship with parents; highest level of school-leaving qualifications of parents; frequency of renunciation due to financial situation; sources of money for personal use; most important source of money.

Values and attitudes: role model available; role model named; life goals; importance of selected life goals; importance of various professional aspects; personal values (comparison of values); attachment to the community, the region, the state, Germany and Europe.

Information and communication behaviour: frequency of use of social networks; preferred platforms; type of use of social networks; interest in politics; points of contact with politics in everyday life; frequency of media use about politics: preferred sources of information about politics; trust in different media.

Political attitudes: satisfaction with democracy; democracy as a good form of government; need for reform in politics; satisfaction with the work of the federal government; trust in institutions; party sympathy; attitudes to politics and society; preference regarding Germany´s future foreign policy; attitude towards the EU.

Political participation: type of political commitment; voluntary work; volunteer work mentioned; interest in the topic of climate protection at Fridays for Future; participation in a Fridays for Future demonstration; agreement to statements on reactions of politics and society to Fridays for Future demonstrations.

Demography: sex; age; highest educational attainment to date; current level of education; type of school/college/university attended; type of school or educational institution; employment; housing situation; migration background; state; city size.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; filter variable; volunteering and role models; weighting factors.

During a survey of Gen Z students in the United States conducted in May 2023 it was found that close to half of respondents used AI to get information about something, and 43 percent did so to help with their schoolwork. In search for information, high schoolers were the most likely to use AI, while college students used this technology mostly to help with schoolwork.

On behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, the opinion research institute Kantar conducted a target group survey of the ´Generation Z´. For this purpose, 1,022 people between the ages of 14 and 24 were surveyed online between 05 and 18 July 2021. The focus of the survey was on the values and orientation of the generation, their situation in the pandemic, political interest and information behaviour as well as political and social attitudes. In order to map the influence of the corona pandemic on the attitudes and social image of Generation Z, the results of this survey were compared with a survey from 2019.
1. Current life circumstances: life satisfaction; highest school-leaving qualification of father and mother; material situation: frequency of renunciation for financial reasons; source of money (from own work, from parents, from state support, from elsewhere); primary source of money; negative effects of the Corona crisis on personal income; organisation of distance learning (communication via a digital learning platform, via video conference, via e-mail, via messenger/chats such as e.g. WhatsApp, via a cloud, by telephone, by post or by other means); agreement with statements on the situation in schools/colleges (I was able to concentrate well on my tasks at home, I missed direct contact with my classmates/ fellow students, my grades deteriorated during the pandemic, distance learning at my school/college worked well, I had insufficient equipment to follow lessons, the accessibility of teachers was very good even in times of distance learning, learning became more strenuous for me during the pandemic); opinion on the future recognition of school, university or professional degrees made during the Corona pandemic; leisure activities during the pandemic (less sport since the beginning of the pandemic than before, relationships with friends have deteriorated during the pandemic, significantly more time on the internet since the beginning of the pandemic than before, started a new hobby during the pandemic); vaccination status; likelihood of Corona vaccination.

1. Values and attitudes: personally most important life goals (e.g. self-discovery, independence, enjoying life, career, etc.); importance of various aspects for pursuing a profession (secure job, adequate income, interesting work that is fun, compatibility of private life and profession (work-life balance), career opportunities, responsibility, opportunities for further training and development); comparison of values : comparison of values Corona: extensive collection of data for infection protection vs. data protection, especially young vs. especially old people have suffered from the pandemic, pandemic as a chance for change vs. after the pandemic back to the usual normality, comparison of values State: debts in favour of education and infrastructure not a problem vs. always a burden for future generations, active role of the state for important future tasks such as climate protection and educational justice vs. leaving a passive role and shaping of the future to society and the economy, orienting politics towards future generations vs. protecting the interests of those who have already made a contribution to society, comparison of lifestyle values: conscious renunciation in favour of sustainability vs. doing what I feel like doing, doing without in favour of health vs. having fun in the foreground, self-realisation vs. putting aside one´s own needs in favour of one´s personal environment, today´s generation has completely different values than the generation before it vs. in principle very similar values as the generation before it).

2. Media and information: interest in politics; points of contact with politics in everyday life (e.g. media consumption, when using social networks, in personal conversations with friends and family, at work, at school or university, in public spaces, in leisure time/hobbies); being informed about politics; most frequently used sources of political information (media) (e.g. news programmes on TV, talk shows on TV, websites of public institutions and authorities, etc.). e.g. news programmes on TV, talk shows on TV, websites of public institutions and authorities, satire programmes on TV, etc.); change in political information behaviour in the Corona pandemic.

3. Politics and society: satisfaction with democracy; opinion on democracy as an idea; need for reform of politics in Germany; most important political problems in Germany (open); satisfaction with the work of the federal government; trust in institutions (judiciary, environmental and aid organisations such as Greenpeace or Amnesty International, public health authorities such as the Robert Koch Institute, federal government, Bundestag, police, churches, school/university); perception of social lines of conflict (between rich and poor, employers and employees, young and old, foreigners and Germans, East Germans and West...

A survey conducted between October 2023 and January 2024 found that 69 percent of Gen Z consumers in the U.S. at least once watched a professional sporting event. The share of Gen Alpha doing the same was 60 percent, according to their parents. College football was not as popular as the professional sporting events.

According to a survey conducted in 2023, Gen Z adults in the United States were divided on whether college is a smart investment in the future or more of a gamble that may not pay off in the end, with 49 percent of Gen Z agreeing with both of these statements. In comparison, Millennials were more likely to say that college was more of a gamble that may not pay off in the end, with 57 percent sharing this belief.

In 2024, the generation Z in the United States had an average of roughly 22,950 U.S. dollars in student loan debt. By contrast, Generation X had the highest student loan debt, amounting to approximately 44,240 U.S. dollars. The value of outstanding student loans has been consistently rising over the past few decades.

The results of a survey conducted among recent college graduates in the United States show that the use of AI at school and work is common for Gen Z. Some 86 percent of young adults in the U.S. said they already used generative AI to help with their classwork. Another 61 percent also said they would see themselves employing these tools in their professional career. In comparison, 22 percent of Gen Z had AI-related concerns of some kind.

There are millions of sports fans across the United States, from religiously following an NFL team to being avid tennis fans or watching every Formula One Grand Prix. During an April 2023 survey in the United States, 41 percent of Millennials stated that they were avid sports fans. However, this figure dropped to 18 percent among baby boomers.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, 28 percent of adults said that vocational training or other professional certification programs were definitely worth the price, more than other higher education institutions. Undergraduate education at private universities, for-profit, was perceived by adults as the least likely to be worth the price out of the other types. The student debt crisis In the United States, the amount of outstanding student loan debt has skyrocketed in the last few years, ultimately outpacing all other forms of household debt. As of the first quarter of 2024, Americans owed over 1.75 trillion U.S. dollars in student loans, likely influenced by increasing college tuition prices at a time of rising living costs and little wage growth. By the 2020/21 academic year, the average cost of attending a four-year postsecondary institution in the U.S. reached over 31,000 U.S. dollars, a price which may triple for Americans attending private and non-profit schools. In that same year, the average student debt for a bachelor's degree in totaled almost 35,000 U.S. dollars, depicting an increase in the amount of Americans taking on larger debts to attend higher education - an agreement which ultimately leads to an even greater outstanding balance from accrued interest. Despite a three-and-a-half-year pause on monthly student loan payments during the COVID-19 pandemic which aimed to alleviate the economic burden faced by over 45 million borrowers, most Americans still struggle to afford these payments. Cutting out college costs As the cost of college - and the resulting student debt - remains on the rise in the U.S., more and more university graduates have been found to be struggling financially, often having difficulty affording bills and other living expenses. Such financial hardships have also caused significant disruption to the lives of younger Americans, with a 2022 survey showing that around a quarter of Gen Z were unable to save for retirement or emergencies and had to delay homeownership and having children due to their student debt. Consequently, debates have arisen over whether the benefits of higher education still exceed the costs in the U.S., with many beginning to doubt that getting a college degree is worth the financial risk. While tuition costs remain at an all-time high, it is probable that financing a college degree may be detrimental for those Americans who have fewer resources and are unable to fund higher education without going into a significant amount of debt.

According to a survey conducted among Generation Z in South Korea in 2019, around 67 percent of respondents stated that they chose and purchased their clothes by themselves. The share of Gen Z who said their parents paid for the clothes they chose was especially high among middle and high school students, while for college students, over 80 percent of respondents said they both chose and paid for clothing.

According to a survey conducted among Generation Z in South Korea in 2019, around 60.8 percent of respondents stated that they spent pocket money to buy snacks and it was followed by buying food and paying for transportation. For youths of college age and above, women spent their pocket money on various fields of purchasing goods and services, while men spent relatively large amounts on games and in-game currencies.

According to a survey conducted among Generation Z in South Korea in 2019, around a third of respondents stated that they received less than 100 thousand South Korean won as monthly pocket money from their parents. About 63 percent of middle and high school students in South Korea received less than 100 thousand South Korean won, while around a third of college students received more than 310 thousand South Korean won.

Over 4.1 million students were enrolled in Russian higher education institutions in 2022. The number of students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs in the country has decreased since 2010, when it exceeded seven million.

Leading Russian universities

In 2023, the Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) ranked first in the list of top universities in Russia, according to the QS World University Rankings, which placed it 75th worldwide. The Bauman Moscow State Technical University ranked first by faculty-to-student ratio in the country. The third place in the domestic ranking was occupied by the Novosibirsk State University (NSU), an educational and scientific center of Siberia. The university ranked 260th in the world and received high scores for its faculty-student and international student ratios.

Job search after the university in Russia

In 2022, roughly seven in ten Russians who graduated from the university in the three previous years were employed in a field related to their studies. Furthermore, approximately one half of graduates from top 30 universities in Russia were willing to move abroad for better job opportunities in 2020. Around 40 percent of Russian Generation Z representatives felt anxious or stressed thinking about their job and career prospects.

According to a 2020 survey of Millennials in India, 69.4 percent of respondents with a professional higher education or vocational college course background preferred to get married between the ages of 26 and 30 years old. A smaller share of respondents in this cohort, 18.5 percent preferred to get married between the ages of 31 and 35.

During a survey held in early 2021, it was found that 83 percent of adults aged between 18 and 29 years old had read a book in any format in the previous year, up by two percent from the share who said the same in 2019. The survey results showed that adults within this age category were more likely than older respondents to have read a book within the last twelve months.

Book readers in the U.S.

While it is mostly believed that book reading is a vanishing pastime, particularly among Millennials, surveys among consumers in the U.S. have shown the opposite. The share of book readers in the U.S. has varied from 72 percent to 79 percent between 2011 and 2016.

In regards to age of book readers in the country, a 2016 survey shows about 80 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 to 29 had read at least one book in the previous 12 months, the highest share amongst all age groups. About 73 percent of the respondents aged between 30 to 49 years old said they read at least one book in the last 12 months. The share among respondents between 50 and 64 years old stood at 70 percent, whereas 67 percent of respondents aged 65 plus stated reading book during the time measured. In terms of education level, book readers in the U.S. are more likely to have a college degree, or at least some college education – 86 percent and 81 percent respectively. Women in the U.S. read slightly more than men; 68 percent of male respondents started reading at least one book in the previous 12 months, against 77 percent of female respondents that said the same.

Despite the rise of digital platforms and the rising popularity of e-reading devices such as Kindle, Kobo and others, printed books still remain the most popular book format in the U.S., as 65 percent of Americans stated preference for printed books in 2016. E-books were consumed by 28 percent of respondents in 2016, whereas audio books were listened by 14 percent of the respondents. Millennials accounted for the largest share of printed book readers in the U.S. – 72 percent as of 2016.