{"id":800988,"date":"2026-07-15T02:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800988\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T02:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:58:12","slug":"politically-engaged-but-very-much-worried-about-buying-a-home-study-reveals-young-australians-anxieties-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800988\/","title":{"rendered":"Politically engaged \u2013 but \u2018very much\u2019 worried about buying a home: study reveals young Australians\u2019 anxieties | Housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Far more young people are worried about being able to buy a home than about climate change or finding a job in their chosen field, according to a study that also reveals gen Z\u2019s deep distrust of politicians, political parties and the media.<\/p>\n

The latest insights from a major longitudinal study show high levels of participation in the political debate, challenging stereotypes that younger Australians are disengaged from public life.<\/p>\n

The federal government-run Growing Up in Australia study has tracked roughly 10,000 children and their families from across the country since 2004, surveying them every two years as they moved through childhood, adolescence and adulthood.<\/p>\n

The two groups in the cohort are now aged 19-20 and 23-24, entering and navigating early adulthood at a time of major social and economic upheaval and a worsening climate crisis.<\/p>\n

Graph showing percentage of young people aged 19\u201320 and 23\u201324 years in 2023\u201324 who were \u2018quite a bit\u2019 or \u2018very much\u2019 concerned about social, economic and environmental issues<\/a><\/p>\n

The latest survey results, published on Wednesday by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, focus on civic engagement and politics. They revealed housing affordability was clearly the most common source of anxiety when it came to social, economic and environment issues.<\/p>\n

Almost three-quarters of the 4,168 respondents reported they felt \u201cquite a bit\u201d or \u201cvery concerned\u201d about being able to afford to buy a home.<\/p>\n

The next most common response was global economic problems (42%) and climate change (41%).<\/p>\n

Just under 40% were worried about finding a job in their chosen field.<\/p>\n

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It was the first time the cohort was specifically asked about civic engagement and politics, meaning it was not possible to compare how their views might have shifted over time.<\/p>\n

The questions will, however, be an ongoing feature of future surveys.<\/p>\n

The scale of anxiety about housing affordability would appear to validate the Albanese government\u2019s decision<\/a> to wind back property investor tax concessions in an attempt to help more young people break into the property market.<\/p>\n

Graph showing young people trust politicians the least, scientists and hospitals the most<\/a><\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers<\/a> also framed the changes as necessary to build trust and address a sense of disillusionment with the political system that was pushing voters toward One Nation and its rightwing populist agenda.<\/p>\n

The survey results laid bare the extent of the trust shortfall, with just 15% of respondents reporting \u201ca lot of trust\u201d or \u201csome trust\u201d in politicians and political parties.<\/p>\n

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The respondents reported the same level of trust in news from social media, while trust in the traditional news media was only slightly higher at 18%.<\/p>\n

Hospitals (86%), scientists (75%) and police (66%) were the most trusted institutions, according to the survey.<\/p>\n

Only 11% of young Australians believed the political system allowed people to have a \u201cmeaningful say\u201d in government decisions, while 38% felt politics was too complicated to understand.<\/p>\n

But while gen Z might be sceptical about politics, it is not preventing them from participating in public debate in some form.<\/p>\n

More than 80% of 1,796 members of the cohort had signed an online petition about a government policy or decision in the past five years, while 31% had attended a protest, march or demonstration.<\/p>\n

Almost 60% had joined or followed a social media group campaigning about a social or political issue, while 45% had posted their views online.<\/p>\n

Dr Ebony Biden, the lead author of the study, said the findings challenged the stereotype that young people were disengaged from public life.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people have often been described as disengaged from civic life, but these findings show many are actively involved in ways that aren\u2019t always expressed through what might be seen as traditional pathways,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding how people, across all ages and diverse groups, engage with political and social issues is critical to building a society that remains inclusive and responsive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Far more young people are worried about being able to buy a home than about climate change or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-800988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}