The political divide based on age has never been wider

The political divide based on age has never been wider 

Bottom Line: Recently I discussed the naturally occurring phenomenon of increased conservatism. Historically we've seen that politically, we're the most liberal when we're youngest and gradually become more conservative with time (when typical family formation takes place). That's still likely to be the case but the political divide based on age has never been wider. The type of research, from Pew Research Center, that I'm getting ready to share with you has existed since 1994. For that reason, the best comparison for Millennial's are Gen Xer's. When Xer's were the same age as Millennial's this was the political composition of that, my, generation. 

Xer's: 

29% liberal 

52% mixed 

19% conservative 

Millennial's: 

57% liberal 

31% mixed 

12% conservative  

That makes Millennial's 28% more liberal in addition to being 7% less conservative than X'er at the same age. This shows up prominently in approval of President Trump. In Pew's research one year into the Trump Presidency there was a 19% disparity in approval of the President between generations (with Millennial approval of President Trump being just 27%). By comparison there's never been an approval gap wider than 15% previously. The point is even if history holds and there is a certain degree of moderating of one's views - the starting point is vastly to the left of what we've seen previously. Granted this is generally regarding social issues - research indicates that Millennial's are actually more conservative with finances than their parents - but it's evident that social issues are likely to continue to shift left for the foreseeable. Especially as Millennial's are soon to displace Boomers as the largest generation. 


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