Executive summary

Now in its 10th year, the Deloitte Global 2021 Millennial and Gen Z Survey found that after a year of intense uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, political instability, racial discord, and severe climate events, millennials and Gen Zs around the world are determined to hold themselves and others accountable on society’s most pressing issues.

Moreover, younger generations want to work for companies that share their values. They are resilient and resolute, and business leaders should not only help their employees pursue positive change, but also prioritise these issues in their own operations to help create a future that’s more responsible regarding the planet, more empathetic toward populations around the world, and more supportive of equality.

Research scope

The 2021 report solicited the view of 22,928 millennials and Gen Zs across 45 countries in January and February 2021. For the first time, Gen Zs were surveyed in all countries where fieldwork was conducted, including 25 geographies where only millennials had been surveyed previously.

For the New Zealand specific information, 503 respondents took part in the survey (300 millennials and 203 Gen Zs).

Millennials include in the study were born between January 1983 and December 1994. Gen Z respondents were born between January 1995 and December 2003.

A New Zealand perspective

The key findings of the survey were:

• Climate change is the number one issues of greatest concern for New Zealand millennials (33%) and Gen Zs (29%).

• However, New Zealand millennials feel more confident that steps can be taken to reduce the damage to the environment with only 41% believing we’ve hit the point of no return compared to 51% in 2020.

• Millennials and Gen Zs are regularly experiencing stress (in New Zealand 40% of millennials and 45% of Gen Zs state they feel anxious or stressed most of the time). Although it is positive to see that for millennials this has decreased from 48% in the 2020 survey.

• In regard to the overall economic and socio-political outlook of New Zealand, our millennials and Gen Zs have a more positive outlook than respondents from other countries. (34% of New Zealand millennials believe the economic situation of their country will improve positively compared to 27% globally, for Gen Zs locally 37% have a positive outlook compared to only 27% globally).

• Fewer millennials think businesses have a positive impact on society. This has been in constant decline in recent years, going from 49% of New Zealand millennials in 2019 to 40% in 2021 (55% and 47% respectively for global millennials). Gen Z at both a local (49%) and global (48%) had a slightly more positive opinion about business.

• Overall, the Millz Mood Index saw millennials in New Zealand improve their score by 5 points to 39, whereas globally there was downward shift of 3 points to 34. For Gen Zs, this was the first time it was measured in New Zealand and they sit at 43, compared to global Gen Zs who also saw a downward shift to 36.

If you would like to discuss any of these findings in more detail, please talk to Lauren Foster.