Generation Activist: Young people choose protest over traditional politics

New Orb Media Inc reporting and data analysis finds that young adults are 14% more likely to participate in street protests and informal organizing over political parties and traditional political engagement than people over 40. Furthermore, young adults are leaving votes on the table. In fact, if all eligible young people voted, they would reclaim about 8% of the total vote globally.

In Generation Activist: Young People Choose Protest Over Traditional Politics, Orb Media delves into this growing global generation gap in political participation – a marked change from the early 2000s when under-40s were only 3%  more likely to protest than older adults.

Orb Media’s analysis of nearly one million responses from 128 countries also finds that perceptions of government corruption are amplifying young people’s disengagement with voting; those who believe their government is corrupt are between 7% and 15% less likely to vote than those of the same age group who believe their government is not corrupt. For those over 40, government corruption perception has only a slight negative effect on voting behaviours.

The line between formal and informal has always been permeable. The street and the internet can’t help but influence policy. What remains to be seen is what this means for governments around the world and this generation as it ages. We challenge readers to consider the questions: How do you engage in politics? And what will you do when you want to see change?