The Gen Z Divide Widens: Students Are Thriving, While Adults Are Struggling
Why Gen Z 1.0 and Gen Z 2.0 see life so differently.
There’s a new split emerging within The Two Gen Zs.
Gen Z adults and Gen Z students ages 13-18 have a different view of how their lives are going, according to the latest Gallup Walton Family Foundation ‘Voices of Gen Z’ study released today.
More than half (56%) of Gen Z students ages 13-18 say they’re thriving, while just 43% say they’re struggling.
Meanwhile, less than half (39%) of Gen Z adults say they’re thriving, while 57% say they’re struggling.
That’s the lowest portion of Gen Z adults to say they’re thriving since Gallup started asking this question, and a five-point drop from last year, when 44% of Gen Z adults said they were thriving.
By contrast, the youngest Gen Zers surveyed (middle and high school students), say they’re doing better than any cohort that age to date.
Gen Z adult women saw the sharpest drop in life evaluation this year. Just 37% of Gen Z adult women said they are thriving in 2025 compared to 46% in 2024 – a nine-point decline. This underscores the growing the gender gap within Gen Z, which extends far beyond politics. Other divides appear along lines of race, education, and party ID, as Gallup’s data shows.
It’s worth noting that Gen Z adults have always rated their lives lower than Gen Z teens, but this year’s 17-point gap in thriving is the widest yet (previous gaps were 11 points in 2024 and 12 points in 2023). This comes after a Gallup survey from February showed just 49% of US adults were thriving, the lowest rate in 5 years.
What can we make of this? I’ve written recently that today’s tweens and teens are hardening – something I’ve noticed in my listening sessions. Unlike Gen Z 1.0 – the so-called snowflake generation – Gen Z 2.0 is growing up tougher. They’re not necessarily jaded, but they’re clear-eyed and realistic about the world around them.
Gallup’s data underscores this shift. While some young adults technically fall into Gen Z 2.0, the broader divide between older and younger Gen Zers points to a generational recalibration in how life is viewed and is further proof of The Two Gen Zs.
As I wrote earlier this month:
“Since I started writing about young voters as a college student, they’ve lamented a broken political system and world around them. But in order for something to feel broken, there must have been a time when it felt intact. Gen Z 1.0 remembers that before-time... For Gen Z 2.0 and Gen Alpha, that point of reference may not exist. Instead, they may expect this to just be how the world works. We’ve reached the point where broken stops being a description, and instead, is the point of reference. Those who don’t remember anything other than this think it’s normal, while others, stuck with a lack of options, are living in the inertia of it all.”
Beyond life satisfaction, Gallup also found that Gen Z students are slightly more optimistic, and feel a bit more prepared for the future, than their older counterparts. That optimism may be youthful, but it’s notable.
Of all Gen Z adult demographics, those who feel the least prepared for their future reported having the lowest level of educational attainment: a high school diploma or less.
Still, in recent listening sessions with high schoolers and recent graduates, many said they wished they felt more prepared for adulthood. They cited stress about what comes next, even among those who already know their college plans. Beyond the classroom, students said they feel they’re lacking practical resources to prepare for independence, which many stressed as a key marker of success (e.g.paying taxes, covering bills, managing finances).
“I think schools often lack teaching of money things so like, how to pay taxes, bills, things like that. I feel like they should have classes for that specifically. I don't know if they do at other schools, but at least at mine, they do not,” said a 16-year-old from Charleston, West Virginia.
“For me, being independent is being self-sufficient. So not having to rely on anyone else to live your life essentially. So that would look like handling all your own bills, making your own money, supporting yourself. And I guess if you choose to do so in the future, your family, or, you know, friends, just like being, I guess, you know, able to hold your own,” said an 18-year-old from Brooklyn, New York.
Connecting the dots
Adulting has always been hard, but today’s challenges are compounded by financial uncertainty.
The biggest theme from my Class of 2025 report last spring was the overwhelming sense of economic anxiety that recent high school and college graduates are facing, followed by concerns about job prospects and the cost of living. That same economic anxiety helped drive many young people to the right in the 2024 election.
Our national dialogue fixates on the woes and anxiety of Gen Z, and Gen Z 1.0 in particular. But at the core, much of that stress comes down to money and security.
For young adults, success centers on financial autonomy and independence at a time when that’s becoming increasingly difficult to attain.
I’m confident this is a core part of both Gen Z’s political shift and lower life evaluation. Young adults today fear and worry that they are struggling or could struggle financially, and that they won’t succeed as adults as a result. Critics may say woe is me, but today’s young adults aren’t making this stuff up: mortgage rates have nearly doubled since 2020, the job market is bleak, especially for young men, and AI is already remaking the job market and changing workplace culture.
The transition from being a student to a young adult always comes with hurdles. But for Gen Z adults, financial insecurity looms large. Closing the gap in life satisfaction will require reshaping the economic conditions young adults inherit, not just telling them to adapt.
This survey data comes from the third annual ‘Voices of Gen Z’ Study with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. Longtime readers of The Up and Up may be familiar with this partnership, which examines young Americans’ experiences inside and outside the classroom. Data from this series has been important for making sense of how Gen Z feels about their future, their relationship with AI, and shed light on Gen Z’s rightward shift well before the 2024 election. The Walton Family Foundation also supports my work on these topics.
Hear some more about how Gen Z teens are feeling right now (including some members of The Up and Up’s Gen Z Community), in this new video from The Walton Family Foundation:
Noteworthy Reads:
The Free Press now has a full Gen Z section
Why Gen Z conservatives love the ‘Reagan Bush ’84’ tee, Rachel Kurzius for The Washington Post
From NYC to Cape Town and Shanghai: The 10 best cities for Gen Z to live in, according to them, Celia Fernandez for CNBC
Benson Boone on Viral Fame, the Kardashians, and His American Heart Tour, Samuel Maude for Elle
Like the Walton family gives TWO SHITS about any generation.
Fuck them, free Luigi.