A new Aussie report says that while millennials earn marginally more, they still are less likely to own a house in their lifetimes.
Millennials, anybody who has ever told you that your generation has it easy can take this: a new report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics says that while millennials are more educated and earn (marginally) more than boomers (when adjusted for inflation), they are still less likely to ever own homes in their lifetimes.
Analysing data from 1991, 2006, and 2021, the report concluded that home ownership has declined in millennials.
In 1991, when boomers were in their 20s and 30s, 65.8% of boomers owned a house. Today, only 54.6% of millennials between the ages of 25-39 have a house – still less compared to 62% of Gen X and two-thirds of boomers at the same ages.
And while millennials do earn only slightly more than boomers when adjusting wages for inflation, the astronomical cost of living and home ownership has made it less likely for them to be able to buy a house.
In 1991, an average worker earned $567.70 in a week, which amounts to $1,143.78 in today’s time. Comparatively, millennials only earn slightly more – $1,344.70 per week, technically an increase of $200.90 over 30 years.
This is despite 76% of millennial workforce being employed (as compare to 70.6% boomers and 73% Gen X) and working more part-time hours than ever.
While the report did not make a correlation between economical strain and marriages, it’s not an overreach to assume that millennials might be putting off long-term commitments in the absence of financial security. Over 53% of millennials have never been married – almost double the number of boomers at the same age.
One of the only aspects where millennials did win out was education – higher education among millennials was relatively higher considering their previous generations. Compared to 64% in Gen X and 48% of boomers, 79% of millennials had some sort of post-school qualification.
So, yeah, the next time someone tells you that things were much harder ‘back in their day,’ consider telling them how wrong they are.
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