CAIRO – 31 August 2017: Despite the fact that half of the world’s population is below age 30, youth worldwide feel that “they are not being listened to by global decision-makers,” according to the largest annual youth survey “Shapers Survey” 2017.
The results of the survey were compiled by the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. The report offers interesting insight into how young people view the world and their challenges.
General findings of the report:
50 percent of respondents were females, 48 percent males and 2 percent other (the “other” category refers to participants who selected the “other” option or “prefer not to answer” in the survey). The highest participation was from Germany, Mexico, USA, El-Salvador and India.
Young people are most concerned about the impact of climate change and the general destruction of nature. According to the report, this is the third year in a row that climate change has been voted the most serious global issue. The report also revealed that young people are not convinced by global efforts, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change to tackle the problem.
Youth’s second and third biggest concerns were global instability and wars. Poverty, religious conflicts and government accountability and transparency also ranked high.
credit Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017
The report also revealed that the young generation is empathetic, as 73.6 percent of the respondents said they would welcome refugees to their countries, and 55.4 percent said their governments should do more to include refugees in the national workforce. Only 3.5 percent said refugees should be deported.
86.5 percent of young people consider themselves simply “human” and did not identify themselves with a particular country, religion or ethnicity.
credit Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017
Furthermore, the report showed that there is a huge distrust for the media among young people as a result of the rise of fake news around the world. Thirty percent of the survey respondents said they trusted media; 46 percent said they did not.
Similar distrust levels were reported by respondents towards big companies, banks and governments. Twenty-seven percent of respondents said that they are worried about corruption. Meanwhile, schools, international organizations and courts of law were deemed as the most trustworthy institutions by young people.
credit Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017
Respondents in the survey said that there is a misconception that millennials are lazy, while they perceive themselves as workaholics and career oriented. Just over 81 percent of the respondents said they are willing to move overseas to advance their career, and they see the U.S., Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia as the most desirable countries to move to for job opportunities.
credit Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017
Young people participating in the survey said that salary is on the top of the criteria that they follow when considering job opportunities, followed by a sense of purpose and career advancement. Only 16 percent of the respondents said they would sacrifice career and salary to enjoy life.
According to the survey, 78.6 percent of youth expressed belief that technology will create jobs rather than destroy them and that technology would benefit education. They also think that the next big technology trend creating the most significant impact is artificial intelligence, with 28 percent of them deeming so, whereas 44.3 percent of surveyed young people rejected the idea to embed an implant under their skin.
Findings from the Middle East and North Africa:
The overall composition of respondents from the Middle East and North Africa was 45.9 percent females, 53.3 percent males and .8 percent other. The majority of participants were among the age group 22-26 years old representing 33.3 percent of the overall sample from this region. The highest contributing country was Palestine, with 796 respondents representing 38.2 percent of the overall sample, followed by Jordan and Bahrain.
Approximately 54 percent of respondents from the Middle East and North Africa expressed belief that the most serious issue affecting their countries is lack of economic opportunities and unemployment, followed by government unaccountability and non-transparency, with 42.2 percent of the respondents deeming so. On the other hand, 43.7 percent said they miss equal access to opportunities, which would make them feel more free.
Moreover, 54 percent said that startups in ecosystem and entrepreneurship are the most important factors contributing to their empowerment. Furthermore, 26.8 percent of respondents said the education system would benefit the most from the adoption of the latest technologies.
Slightly more than 84 percent of young respondents in the Middle East and North Africa said they are willing to live outside their country to find a job or advance their career. The U.S., UAE, Canada, the UK, Germany and Turkey were among the first choices of these respondents.
Background on the report:
The Global Shapers Annual Survey report highlights the overall findings of the survey and features key messages and insights of youth. It is structured around the five key themes: economy and global outlook, governance and civic engagement, technology and innovation, values and society, and business and the workplace. The Global Shapers Annual Survey is designed around two lead questions: How do young people see the world? What do they want to do about it?
Information provided in the report is reviewed using one of the following resources: 1) World Bank income levels based on estimates of gross national income (GNI) per capita; 2) the Human Development Index (HDI) composed of life expectancy, education and income per capita indicators, and are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development, published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP); 3) countries and territories classified by the larger “regions” of the UN and smaller “sub regions” of the World Economic Forum.
The survey was anonymous, available in 14 languages and open to participants from March 31 to June 30, 2017. The number of respondents reached 31,495, while the analyzed data was from 24,766 forms from 186 countries. Young people who lacked easy access were reached through workshops and provided by devices to complete the survey.
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