What the Millennial Generation Wants in 2023, and Beyond

Critical Issues Facing the Millennial Generation

By now it is a well-known fact that Millennials are by far the largest group of people on the planet.

It's an incredibly large body of people, with many nuances between just the older half of Millennials and the younger half of the generation alone. Digging deeper, we find that fifty percent of the world’s population is under the age of 32 (there are, of course, Millennials outside this age bracket), which is an even more significant statistic when you take a moment to think about it.

While Millennials comprise a significant portion of the global population (~72 million in the U.S. alone), no matter how you slice it, they will define our collective future in the years and decades to come. Because of their continued, growing level of impact on our shared future, it is important that we understand their view of the world, their passions, what they want, and the critical issues they're currently facing. Taking time to understand better their worldviews will clearly indicate how they will engage the road ahead.

So What are Millennials Most Concerned About?

Based on a recent survey, two key concerns for the Millennial generation are climate change and global conflict.

According to the survey, the third hottest concern for Millennials focuses on entrepreneurship and a person's ability to engage in it.

When asked, Millennials responded that they also felt that access to the Internet, and social media, followed close behind in importance, particularly because access to these "essential life ingredients" is necessary for starting their own businesses.

The Millennial Generation Speaks Out

Also discovered as part of the survey, over 50% of younger Millennials believed that their opinions and voices were not being recognized. Solving this issue is no easy task, but developing initiatives with clearly defined paths that Millennials can contribute to and exercise their voices in, may be a pathway we as a global culture and community can explore together.

Another pressing issue facing Millennials is their ability to find a resolution to the conflict in the world, another larger-scale issue.

The critical question here is: how does the Millennial generation begin to feel empowered to combat it?

Believe it or not, Millennials see one potential solution to this through entrepreneurship, as this is how they feel they can fuel effective change in the world. Entrepreneurship gives them a vehicle to develop and implement innovative solutions to existing problems in the world.

They may not feel they can affect change through existing, antiquated systems...but they do if they can build new ones on their own.

Millennials Want to Tackle Unemployment

Although unemployment affects all countries -- particularly among individuals under 30 -- technology and entrepreneurship alone can't solve the problem. Unemployment has reached a record high of ~13% internationally, with an urgent need for a solution.

Starting a new business isn't a simple fix, as most start-ups statistically will fail (9 out of 10, to be exact). As anyone who's started a business learns, no single formula leads to business "success," making a quick and clear solution for Millennials somewhat elusive, despite the best intentions.

Even well-funded start-ups coming out of Silicon Valley often struggle to figure out the key to "success" as constant evolution is required. As Millennials look to pursue their entrepreneurial spirit and open new businesses, they too will inevitably find the challenge of running a business much more difficult than they originally thought.

Ultimately, the message is clear: the way to help Millennials resolve unemployment is by arming them with the business skills and understanding that sets the stage for their success.

Building a strategy to help Millennials achieve these goals for 2022 and beyond is a necessary first step. That, combined with their eagerness to generate positive change, will make Millennials potentially unstoppable toward a better tomorrow.

And that will benefit us all, no matter what generation you're a member of.

Sources:

• WeForum.org
• OurWorldInData.org