- Gen Zers are less likely to see home ownership as a sign of the American Dream than other generations.
- They're also least likely to feel confident about achieving the American Dream, per a survey by GoDaddy.
Gen Zers are less likely to see owning their own home as a sign they've achieved the American Dream than previous generations, according to a survey by GoDaddy.
The web-hosting company polled 1,000 small-business owners across the US about how they measured success.
One of the questions read: "Does owning your own home indicate you've achieved the American Dream?"
Only 40% of Gen Zers, aged between 18 and 24, opted for "yes." This rose with age – 44% of millennials agreed, 49% of Gen Xers, and 50% of boomers and members of the silent generation.
This could be because Gen Zers are pessimistic about whether they'll ever actually own a home. It also suggests changing attitudes to what it means to be successful.
Across the GoDaddy survey, more people listed being able to live comfortably, feeling happy in life, and being able to follow passions and interests as evidence that someone had achieved the American Dream than home ownership.
As neighboring generations, many polls suggest that Gen Zers and millennials have similar mindsets – at least in comparison to older generations. But GoDaddy's survey actually showed stark differences between Gen Zers and millennials in terms of how optimistic they were about achieving the American Dream.
Gen Z was the least likely generation to feel confident about achieving the American Dream, with 56% saying they were "very confident" they'd achieve it and 19% least confident. Millennials, on the other hand, were the most confident, with 66% saying they were "very confident" and only 11% least confident.
It also varied by gender. Overall, 71% of men said they were "very confident" they would achieve the American Dream, versus 55% of women. Women were twice as likely as men to be least confident, too.