Global Youth Outlook 2024

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The Global Youth Outlook 2024

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent the global commitment to a brighter future. The Global Youth Outlook surveys 2209 young people between the ages of 10 - 29 from over 43 countries and highlights their perspectives on the future of our planet and people.

Everyday, we make choices. Small ones, like using this water bottle instead of buying a plastic one. Because believe it or not, these little things help shape our future.

We need everyone on board – governments, businesses, communities. We see who’s really making an effort and who’s not.

From ages as young as 10 years old, we know the importance of the SDGs: clean water, good health, quality education – these aren’t just nice ideas, these are our goals and we’re actively contributing to achieving them.

We’re the tech-savvy generation, digital natives who speak the language of the future. We’re not just ready to tackle the world’s problems; we’re already on it! Sharing ideas, spreading the word, rallying support – that’s what we do.

This is our time. Our voice. Our planet.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent the global commitment to a brighter future. Achievement of the Goals depends on the participation of all demographic segments of society, particularly youth. As leaders of tomorrow, young people are the most affected by the choices and actions of today. This takes the importance of youth engagement on the SDGs beyond intergenerational justice and makes their involvement in all aspects of development a necessity.

Youth engagement and contribution are essential as they bring new vitality, inventive ideas, and fresh perspectives to the table. Their digital nativity gives them the necessary skills to successfully navigate the complexity of today’s world and devise original solutions to the problems of tomorrow.

PwC’s 2024 Global Youth Outlook survey engaged 2,200 children and young adults from diverse global regions and revealed insightful perspectives on the significance and future of the SDGs:

While a majority (60%) have a moderate understanding of the SDGs, a significant 23% are highly familiar with them.
This year’s respondents prioritised “Clean Water & Sanitation”, “Good Education”, “Good Health and Well-being”, and “Zero Hunger” as their top concerns, reflecting their immediate needs and aspirations.
However, and in comparison to last year, it is noteworthy that “Climate Action” and “Gender Equality” ranked lower, indicating a potential need and opportunity to increase awareness and advocacy in these areas.

This year’s survey also points to a notable gap between intention and action. On average, 1 in 3 young people who plan to act on the SDGs have not yet started, thus highlighting the need for initiatives to help translate intentions into actions. This is particularly pressing given that, in the long run, small actions can have large effects, especially on the SDGs that young people are most engaged with.

The survey results also brought attention to a key area of concern: the belief that businesses and governments are not doing enough to advance the SDGs. Consequently, there is an urgent need for these stakeholders to step up their efforts and increase the visibility of their initiatives. Only 38% of respondents considered these players to be doing enough. On the bright side, nearly 50% of respondents recognized the critical role that communities and NGOs/international organisations play in assisting people and the environment.

Young people feel empowered and develop a sense of ownership and responsibility when involved in decision-making processes and implementing initiatives to support the SDGs. Their mastery of social media and technology can inspire global action, rally support, and promote awareness. Creating platforms for dialogue, enabling youth representation in decision-making bodies, and actively seeking their input are integral parts of any SDG implementation strategy.

In summary, youth engagement is essential to implementing the SDGs, as their voices, ideas, and energy are critical to creating a sustainable future for all. The success of the SDGs and our collective future depend on it.

Survey results: Government & business can and should do more

Do you believe that enough is being done by the following groups to help our planet and people?

Our survey and analysis aim to give youth a voice in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and amplify the often-overlooked perspectives of global youth on this important issue. Encouragingly, despite the inclusion of younger age brackets in the report, there is significant awareness of the SDGs, with a fairly even distribution in awareness levels between males and females. Overall levels of familiarity with the SDGs are similar across age groups.

Regarding young people's perceptions of key stakeholders' contributions to helping the planet and people, communities and non-governmental/international organisations (NGOs/IOs) rank highest. There is a general perception that businesses should do more. However, views on whether governments and businesses are doing enough are polarised. Only 38% of young people believe that governments are doing enough, and 36% see businesses as significant contributors. Notably, perceptions of government vary significantly by geography: respondents in the Middle East tend to have more favourable views on the role and impact of government, while youth in Western countries prioritise communities and non-government organisations.

A potential reason for critical views of government in democratic countries is the lack of youth representation in decision-making roles: only 2.6% of parliamentarians worldwide are under the age of 30, despite this demographic comprising half of the global population¹.

Youth prioritise SDGs that are social in nature

Clean Water and Sanitation ranks as the highest priority amongst our youth respondents with social SDGs, such as education, health & well-being and the eradication of hunger standing out in young people’s hearts and minds.

How important are each of these Sustainable Development Goals to you?

For the second year running, youth rank clean water and sanitation as top of their SDG priorities. A staggering 77% of youth respondents believe it is a “very important” goal – only 3% do not identify it among their priorities. Despite its importance, only 39% of the initial enthusiasts have or plan to take action to support this goal. Clean Water & Sanitation is a global priority that will severely impact lives and livelihoods in the future. Though significant steps have been made towards addressing this goal, specifically in water use efficiency – which according to the United Nations improved by 9% last year, 1.8 billion people continue to live in households without a source of water on the premises². Broken down by geography, in 2022, 73% of the global population had access to safely managed drinking water services, with regional coverage ranging from 94% in Europe and Northern America to 31% in sub-Saharan Africa³. Achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require a substantial increase in current global efforts: sixfold for drinking water, fivefold for sanitation, and threefold for hygiene.

Enabling the inclusiveness and quality of education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities ranked second on this year’s list of priorities in our survey, as 74% consider it “very important”. Even before the pandemic, progress towards quality education was already slower than required, but COVID-19 had a devastating impact on accessibility and quality of education. For years, and since 2010, global participation rates in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age) have remained steady at 70%, with significant disparities across and within territories and regions. Learning losses as a result of the pandemic are estimated at four out of five of the 104 countries studied by UN analyses⁴. In 2021, despite the provision of free and compulsory pre-primary education in these regions, the lowest pre-primary participation rates were observed in Sub-Saharan Africa (47%), and Northern Africa and Western Asia (46%). In contrast, Europe and North America have maintained a high early childhood education (ECE) participation rate of 91% in 2022, which has remained unchanged since 2010. Similarly, Latin America and the Caribbean (90% in 2022) and Oceania (79% in 2022) have not shown any changes in ECE participation since 2016⁵.

The global healthcare industry has been slowly evolving from one focused on caring for the sick to one that fully embraces wellness, mostly due to the needs and growing expectations of younger generations. Generation Z, representing the majority of responders in this current study, is about to take this transformation to the next level – 73% of them place Good Health and Well-being as their third most important sustainability goal, while half of them are already taking action to see the goal realised. Born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z represents about 25% of the global population, but to date, they account for only 3.3% of total healthcare/wellness expenditure. In part, this is because they are not getting the kind of healthcare they want, need, and would seek out if offered.

That being said, significant strides have been made in the provision of basic healthcare services. For example, 166 of 200 countries have achieved or will soon achieve their target for under-5 mortality. Due to effective HIV treatment, there has been a 52% reduction in global AIDS mortality since 2010, and at least one neglected tropical disease has been eliminated in 47 countries. Despite this, a myriad of factors, including but not limited to Covid-19, as well as ongoing economic crises and challenges, have hampered progress on aspects of expanding universal health coverage, reducing maternal mortality, and immunisation. Every day, around 800 women around the world die during pregnancy or childbirth, immunisation has seen its biggest decline in three decades, and deaths from tuberculosis and malaria have increased compared to pre-pandemic levels⁶.

Aggravated by natural disasters, geo-political conflict, and socio-economic challenges, “Zero Hunger” continues, for the second year running, to be one of the top priorities for our youth respondents. The latest “State of Food Security and Nutrition” report paints a concerning picture of the state of world hunger: 735 million people are still facing hunger every day; predictions show that this number will not fall below 600 million until 2030⁷. In absolute terms, this indicates only a slight increase over 2015, the year of the 2030 Agenda adoption. Increasingly, and in light of global events and conflicts, the goal of Zero Hunger is now a distant, even diminishing, prospect, making the need for guidance on ‘transformative and accelerated action’ urgently needed.

Considering that the bulk of the survey sample is based in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, it is unsurprising that Peace, Justice, & Strong Institutions ranked 5th of the 17 SDGs among our youth respondents. Similar to last year’s survey, approximately 70% of youth respondents stated that this goal is “very important” to them. Perhaps due to the nature of the Goal and the fact that it directly relates to state actions and institutions, this goal had the highest action gap. Only 35% of the young males and females interviewed are already taking concrete actions to support this goal.

Despite its breadth in scope, the achievement of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 16th Goal is a crucial precondition for sustainable development, affecting all aspects of life and world citizens of all ages. 108.4 million people were forcibly displaced globally at the end of 2022, up 19 million from the previous year and 2.5 times the figure from ten years earlier. Sadly, for the first time since the adoption of Agenda 2030, the year 2022 witnessed an increase of more than 50% in conflict-related civilian deaths⁸. In 2022, at least 16,988 civilians were killed, with 1 in 5 victims being women. Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe accounted for 90% of the deaths. Given ongoing conflict around the world, it is likely that the number will be considerably higher for 2023 and 2024.

Extreme poverty, defined by the United Nations as living on less than $2.15 per person per day at 2017 purchasing power parity, is a multidimensional condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, as well as the lack of access to education, information, living standards, and social inclusion⁹. In March 2023, the global poverty headcount ratio of people living at the $2.15 per day threshold stood at 8.5%, resulting in an increase in the number of poor people from 648 million previously to 659 million worldwide. This revision reflects an additional 11 million people living in extreme poverty—5 million more people from South Asia and 4 million more from the Middle East and North Africa¹⁰. At the current rate, in 2030 an estimated 575 million people, or 7% of the world’s population, could still be living in severe poverty, with a large concentration in sub-Saharan Africa. The fact that hunger has returned to levels last seen in 2005 is a serious setback in achieving the number 1 goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The continued rise in food prices in a greater number of countries compared to 2015-2019 is equally worrying—food security and poverty still present a serious worldwide threat.

The pivotal role of this specific goal in the overall SDGs is also visible in the results of our 2024 Global Youth Outlook survey. 65% of respondents consider No Poverty as “very important,” ranking it 6th in order of importance, with an even distribution across genders and age groups. However, the fact that only 33% of young people are already taking action to support this goal is rather concerning, making it one of the goals with the highest action gap (32 points).

Amid a global energy crisis driven by conflict, depleted natural resources, and an overwhelming reliance on electronic devices, 65% of this year’s respondents consider Affordable and Clean Energy to be a top priority. Strikingly, this is also one of the top goals for which young people feel least empowered – 24% of those interviewed said “I would like to support the goals but cannot act on it,” which could be an important opportunity for governments to engage youth.

If current trends in energy generation and consumption continue, renewable energy sources will make up only 42% of the global energy supply in 2028; with nearly 2 billion people still relying on polluting fuels and 660 million people at the risk of losing access to electricity.

The past decade has been the warmest since global records began in 1850, with 2023 ranking as the warmest year on record, bearing with it massive wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, floods, and other climate disasters across continents. Highly vulnerable regions (including countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East), home to roughly 3.3–3.6 billion people, saw 15 times higher rates of human mortality from floods, droughts, and storms between 2010 and 2020.

In comparison to last year’s survey results, there is a considerable change in position and proportion of youth that ranked this goal as “very important”. In our 2024 Global Youth Outlook survey, 56% of those interviewed deemed Climate Action as “very important”, ranking this goal 9th among the top 10 most important SDGs, while in 2023, Climate Action emerged as the second most important SDG, with 72% of last year’s respondents ranking it as “very important”. This shift in priorities could also be explained by the timing during which the survey was run, which coincided with conflict and war across Europe and the Middle East giving priority to more social SDGs.

According to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey, Gen Z and Millennials (the core groups of our survey) are more engaged in matters of climate change than older adults and express more anxiety about the future, especially when communicating online. They talk more about the need for action on climate change, engage with more climate change content online, and are more involved with the issue through activities such as volunteering and attending rallies and protests. Similarly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, compared to older adults, Gen Z and Millennials were also more engaged in climate change activism, with 32% and 28% respectively participating in at least one of four actions (donating, contacting elected officials, volunteering, or attending rallies) in 2021, compared to 21% of Gen X and Baby Boomers¹¹.

Women and girls of all ages represent half of the world’s population; however, gender disparity is still pervasive, impeding social progress. In the global job market, on average, women still earn 23% less than males despite putting in three times as many hours performing unpaid caregiving and household duties. Achieving gender equality requires cross-sectional reforms to break systemic barriers in all areas of life – legal, social, and economic.

6 years before the 2030 milestone, only 15.4% of the UN Goal 5 indicators are “on track,” 61.5% are at a moderate distance, and 23.1% are far or very far off track from targets. If current trends continue, it will take an estimated 300 years to eradicate child marriage, 286 years to eliminate discriminatory laws and close legal protection gaps, 140 years to equalize the representation of women in leadership and power positions in the workplace, and 47 years to attain equal representation in national parliaments.

In the 2024 edition of our survey, Gender equality ranked 12th place in order of importance, with a blended rate (both female and male) of 53% of respondents considering it as “very important,” marking a considerable change from last year’s ranking in which its prioritisation as “very important” by 64% of the respondents ranked it 4th in order of importance. As expected, girls/women interviewed in our survey attribute considerably more importance to the gender equality goal than boys/men – 62% of female respondents deemed gender equality as “very important.” Similarly, 41% of the girls and women surveyed are already taking action to support this goal, compared to only 34% of their male counterparts¹².

Seizing the opportunity: bridging three SDG gaps

There are currently 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24 on the planet, making them the largest generation of youth in history; and they are expected to grow even further! In fact, it is estimated that 1.9 billion young people will reach the age of 15 between 2015 and 2030. Approximately 90% of this demographic of young people live in developing nations, where they struggle with limited resources that aggravate current environmental, social, and economic challenges. Developing countries are also disproportionately impacted by global issues such as climate change, conflict, and health crises, creating a need and urgency for the effective implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals¹³.

The current report puts forward the findings of our Global Youth Outlook’s second edition, a survey that this year explores the views and commitment of 2,209 children and young adults between the ages of 10 and 30 years old, from 43 countries across the world, to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Our findings and analysis show that due to their unprecedented connectivity, this generation of youth continue to make significant contributions to the development of their communities by developing creative solutions, creating positive impact in their societies, and advancing social justice. Given the right tools and resources, young people can act for change, working to better people’s lives and the state of the world by advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.

As we unpack the findings of our survey, three distinct opportunities emerge – painting a vivid picture of how we can address existing gaps and prioritise future actions:

Fostering knowledge reveals the potential to remove disparities in awareness and understanding of the SDGs.
Empowering actions addresses what we have termed the action gap, and highlights the opportunity of better translating the intent to tangible impact.
Addressing the gender gap underscores the importance of promoting gender balance and closing the gender gap to achieve gender parity from a young age.

How familiar are you with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

Total

Age

1. Fostering knowledge – bridging SDG awareness gaps

Surprisingly, our survey reveals similar levels of awareness and familiarity with the SDGs between the 10-17 and the 18-30 age groups, shattering the preconceived notion that age correlates with the level of understanding of the Goals and implying that schools are starting to engage with students around the SDGs from a younger age. This unexpected insight challenges us to reconsider how we approach and target awareness campaigns, acknowledging the equal potential of all youth groups to grasp the importance of sustainable development.

The unexpected finding of similar awareness levels among different groups presents an opportunity to revise and diversify awareness campaigns for sustainable development. By recognizing that younger respondents have a keen interest in the SDGs, we can design and deliver campaigns to empower this demographic further by incorporating youth-friendly language, leveraging social media platforms popular with youth, and creating educational materials targeting this age group. The finding also highlights the need to develop targeted initiatives that engage older age brackets using innovative approaches that inspire and capture their interest, including engaging young people as advocates and ambassadors and developing peer-to-peer platforms around the SDGs¹⁴.

2. Empowering action – how small steps can have a big impact

Our survey suggests a behaviour lag between the priorities and interests of our youth respondents and their engagement and action towards achieving the Goals. In general terms, the Goals that were prioritised as being of top importance in the survey demonstrate the biggest “action gaps.” This raises important questions about the availability of outreach and engagement activities by specialist institutions and organisations, and the relevance of the activities on offer. By recognizing that some SDGs may be “easier” and more appealing to youth, organisations can work towards fostering a culture of activity and engagement, as a small step towards a big difference.

Youth responses to the question of how they can support SDGs range from educating themselves, through to communicating and sharing news about the SDGs (especially through social media) and building social networks, as well as actively volunteering and engaging in their communities. Most interestingly, “Showing small acts of kindness” was seen as an entry point towards deeper involvement, and came up as a recurring theme in the youth’s responses—especially among the younger age group.

This year’s survey results reflect the youth’s intuitive understanding of a “kindness ripple effect,” of compassion and benevolence creating positive impacts. Studies indicate the same findings, showing that supporting others improves well-being, mental health, and overall happiness. By simply showing kindness, young people can overall contribute to the SDGs and their own well-being¹⁵.

While the SDGs are widely considered important, there is a significant opportunity to encourage people to translate their support into action.

The "action gap": percentage of youth respondents who have prioritised a goal and are taking actions to support it

3. Addressing the gender gap

A closer analysis of our survey results indicates a higher action gap for girls and women across all 17 goals. Overall, there is an average difference of +4.7 points between female and male respondents in terms of what they do to act in support of the goals they consider as “very important,” resulting in an average of 28 and 24 action gap points for the two genders respectively.

The lower engagement levels of girls/women around their SDG priorities implies that the structural and institutional barriers that reinforce gender discrimination and stereotypes persist and continue to impact younger generations. As with previous gaps, recognizing and acknowledging the need to increase the agency of girls and women through targeted campaigns and initiatives, especially from a young age, is a priority moving forward—with significant bearing on sustainable socio-economic development in its broadest sense.

Percentage difference among youth respondents - by gender - between who have prioritised a goal an taken action to support

4. Key areas to focus on

As younger groups demonstrate familiarity and interest in the SDGs, we can tailor campaigns to empower them, including youth-oriented language, education materials, and social media platforms. Results also highlight the need to adapt the approach to older audiences by using dedicated campaigns or young people as advocates or ambassadors.

Including young people in SDG decision-making processes fosters a sense of engagement in their future. Practical implementation strategies for the SDGs should prioritise facilitating dialogue platforms for youth, enabling their representation in decision-making bodies, and actively soliciting their unique perspectives.

Notably, young people champion kindness for a better world, seeing its link to SDGs and well-being. This opens doors for integrating kindness in SDG education, creating platforms for youth to share how kindness builds a sustainable future, or supporting youth-led kindness-related projects.

The growing emphasis on the social SDGs requires a strategic approach to supporting the social concerns of young people. This could mean investing in areas like health services, educational scholarships, and youth-led social enterprises tackling social issues. Equally important is enabling accessibility and support by removing barriers to healthcare and education.

By implementing more robust programs and increasing public-private initiatives that target children and youth around the SDGs, governments and businesses can contribute more effectively to empowering young people to become active participants in achieving a more sustainable future.