"Youthquake" to shake up 2025 federal election as Millenial and Gen Z voters outnumber Boomers and Gen Xers for the first time
Monash University
A “youthquake” is set to shape up the 2025 federal election as Millenial and Gen Z voters outnumber their older counterparts at the polls for the first time, with housing and employment front of mind according to a new report from Monash University.
A new report from Monash University’s Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice (CYPEP) has crunched the numbers and found Millenial and Gen Z voters will be most concerned with housing, employment, climate change, inequality and health when casting their votes.
Five top issues for young voters in the 2025 Federal Election: Insights from the Australian Youth Barometer shows three in four voters aged under 24 want immediate action on affordable housing.
Half of voters under 24 also cited employment opportunities for young people as an urgent issue, while almost one in three cited racial and gender inequality.
CYPEP Director and Monash School of Education Culture & Society Professor Lucas Walsh said the findings could help decide the electoral future of many hopeful federal election candidates.
“This election is the first where Gen Z and Millennials will make up the majority of voters in every Australian state and territory,” he said.
“This is a critical moment in time because such a significant change in the electoral demographic brings with it a shift in the issues we see deciding elections.
“Young Australians are inheriting not only the weight of greater voting influence, but also disproportionate challenges related to affordable accommodation, work and climate change.”
Professor Walsh said the next generation of voters have grown up in a more tumultuous and dynamic political environment than past generations, resulting in different expectations for their elected representatives.
“Young people today are not the same rusted-on, partisan voters their parents and grandparents have been, so the proposition from politicians must be different,” he said.
“Politicians beware: Millennials and Gen Z voters will make their decisions on the issues they are seeing affecting their community, rather than the colour of the shirts the candidates are wearing.”
The Australian Youth Barometer examines interconnected dimensions of young people’s lives by surveying at least 500 Australians aged 18-24 and interviewing 30 more.
Themes covered in the barometer include; the economy, work, education, wellbeing, relationships with family, friends and partners, the impact of technology and social media and young people’s civic participation in society, including experiences of belonging and exclusion.
The figures in the Five top issues for young voters in the 2025 Federal Election report come from the 2024 Australian Youth Barometer.
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FAST FACTS
Housing affordability
- In 2024, 48 per cent of young people said it was likely or very likely that they would be able to purchase a property or house.
- 39 per cent thought there was not enough government support for housing.
- In the face of rental and housing challenges, many young people are resorting to alternative and potentially untenable or unsafe housing
Employment and finances
- 86 per cent experienced financial difficulties at some point in the previous 12 months, with 26 per cent reporting that they did so often or very often.
- Barometer interviewees worried about their ability to find secure, high paying work, not being able to work in their chosen careers, and increased costs of living.
- 62 per cent of young Australians believed that they will be financially worse off than their parents.
- Employment tends to be insecure and casualised.
- 48 per cent of young Australians reported participating in the gig economy.
Climate change
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74 per cent of young Australians thought that the federal government should do more to address the problem of climate change.
Inequality and discrimination
- 32 per cent of young Australians say race relations and racial inequality are priority issues.
- 29 per cent of young Australians say gender inequality at work and in public places is a priority issue.
- 21 per cent of young Australians say LGBTIQA+ discrimination is a priority issue.
- 20 per cent of young Australians say gender inequality at home is a priority issue.
- Only 46 per cent of young Australians felt like they belonged when they were at work.
Mental health
- 21 per cent of young Australians rated their mental health as poor or very poor,
- 98 per cent reported having at least one feeling of anxiety or pessimism to some extent in the previous year.