Explanation:
The survey found a "clear dividing line" between developed countries and emerging economies. 82% of Chinese respondents felt that their generation had a better life than their parents'. Brazil, India and Turkey were also very positive with 52%, 51% and 50% respectively. Japan and Russia were also relatively positive, with more people saying their life is better than worse than their parents' generation.
Interestingly, of the western countries featured in the survey, only Sweden and Germany had more people saying that their life is better than worse than their parents' generation. The majority of British respondents felt that their generation will have had a worse life than their parent's (40% worse, 36% better).
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Only around a quarter of respondents in Belgium, France and Spain think their life will be better. The French were the most likely to say that they felt their lives would be worse.
Ipsos Mori then looked at how responses to the question broke down by country for those under the age of 30. They found that a much "wider variation" appeared; from 78% of under 30s in China saying that their life will have been better than their parents' generation to just 12% of under 30s echoing the same sentiment in Belgium. The survey results showed that across all countries, young people were less likely to answer 'better' than the population as a whole in their country. The biggest gap was seen in Britian with only 22% of British respondents under 30 stating that they felt like they would have a better life than their parents, compared with 36% of the total British survey respondents.
The graphic below shows how the percentage of total respondents choosing 'better' as an answer changes when you look at just under 30s compared to the whole population of their country.
Will today's youth have had a better or worse life that their parents' generation?
The survey also asked 'to what extent, if at all, do you feel that today's youth will have had a better life than their parents' generation, or will it be about the same?' 42% of the total survey respondents said that they think it will be worse and 34% said they think it will be better. The chart below shows the percentage of total respondents and those under 30 who think today's youth will have had a better life than their parents' generation.
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Ipsos Mori also asked whether older people should make sacrifices so that young people can make a life for themselves. They noted that "overall, this is not a widely popular idea" with around half of the 20 countries against the idea versus a third in favour. They found that Turkey was particularly in favour while Germany stood out as having little support for the idea. According to the survey findings, on average across the 20 countries, young people were no more likely to call for sacrifices from older people than the population as a whole. In fact they found that some countries such as China, Russia and India, young people were significantly less likely than the population as a whole to say that older people should make sacrifices whereas some countries such as the US, young people were more in favour of the idea.
What are the limitations?
Measuring well-being and feelings of optimism are notoriously tricky. For one thing, our projections of happiness are hugely temporary. Last year, Arik Levinson from Georgetown University argued that happiness "over-reacts to temporary changes".
In other words, we are more likely to be optimistic about our futures on a sunny day than on one where it is raining.
The survey's coverage only extends to twenty countries and so may obscure the particular outlooks of some in other developing world countries. It is notable that the only African country that was included was South Africa.
