Across the nations we surveyed, people are generally pessimistic about the financial future of the next generation in their country. A median of 57% say children will grow up to be financially worse off than their parents, compared with a median of 34% who say they will be better off.
In the high-income nations of Canada and the U.S., about three-quarters of adults believe children will be worse off.
Similarly high shares are pessimistic in most of the European countries surveyed, all of which are high-income countries. About three-quarters or more in France, Greece, Italy, Spain and the UK say children will grow up to be worse off financially than their parents.
Poland is the only European country where people more likely to offer an optimistic view of the next generation’s financial future: 41% of Poles say children will be better off, while 31% say they will be worse off. Another 18% of Poles volunteer that their future financial situation will be about the same.
In the Asia-Pacific region, views are most negative in Australia, Japan and South Korea, where about two-thirds or more say children will be worse off than their parents. People in Malaysia and Sri Lanka are also pessimistic on this question.
In the six other Asia-Pacific countries surveyed, people are more likely to say that children will be financially better off than their parents. At least seven-in-ten hold this view in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Singapore is the only high-income Asia-Pacific nation where people say children will be better off.
Of the Middle East-North African countries surveyed, people in Turkey have an especially dim view of children’s financial future. About two-thirds of Turks say children in their country will be worse off than their parents.
In sub-Saharan Africa, around two-thirds of adults in Kenya and South Africa also say children will be worse off than their parents.
Views are divided in the Latin American countries surveyed. In Colombia and Peru, more people say children will be worse off than better off, but the reverse is true in Argentina.
Views by perception of economic inequality
There’s a clear relationship between people’s perceptions of economic inequality in their country and how they see the next generation’s financial future.
In most countries, people who consider the gap between the rich and the poor to be a very big problem are especially pessimistic about how children will fare financially when they grow up.
Likewise, dissatisfaction with the current economic situation and with the functioning of democracy are linked to the sense that children will be worse off financially than their parents in the future.
Views by opinion of the governing party
The belief that children will grow up to be financially worse off than their parents is also more common among people who do not support the governing party in their country. For example, in Hungary, 57% of people who do not support the governing party say children will grow up to be worse off financially than their parents. This view is shared by just 20% of Hungarians who support the governing party. (Read Appendix B for a classification of governing parties as of spring 2024.)
Views by age and income
In most countries, older and younger adults generally have the same outlook on children’s financial future. There are also few major differences by income level.
How views of the next generation’s financial future have changed over time
In 15 surveyed countries, the public’s economic outlook is worse today than before the coronavirus pandemic. For example, the share of Germans who think children will grow up to be worse off financially than their parents has increased by 19 percentage points since 2019 – from 42% then to 61% today.
