(PartiallyPolitics.com) – The growing adult population among Gen Z are struggling more financially than their millennial counterparts did at their age ten years ago.
The data about the financial struggles emerged in a study by credit reporting agency TransUnion published last week.
The study surveyed 614 Gen Z consumers aged between 22 and 24 years old and 623 Millennials who would have been between 22 and 24 ten years ago.
The study also includes data from the credit bureau from December 2023 and December 2013, contrasting the data between Gen Z and Millennials.
According to the study, despite the cost of living increasing, consumers aged 22 to 24 earn less and have higher debt-to-income ratios than consumers in the age group had ten years ago.
According to Q4 data from TransUnion, 22 to 24-year-olds make $45,493 a year, compared to $51,852, adjusted for inflation, consumers in the same age group ten years ago made.
Gen Z also have a higher debt-to-income ratio in their early twenties, currently have a 16.05 percent debt-to-income ratio, nearly five percentage points higher than the 11.76 percent ratio Millennials had ten years ago.
The report states the higher ratio is a reflection of the “higher inflationary pressures on Gen Z,” pointing out that the average credit card balance for Gen Z aged 22 to 24 years old is $2,834 today compared, but for Millennials ten years ago it was only $2,248.
Gen Z participants also revealed they were more stressed about their financial situation than Millennials were about theirs ten years ago.
Fourteen percent of Gen Z participants claimed to be “extremely stressed out,” while only 8 percent of Millennial participants expressed feeling the same way about their finances ten years ago.
Likewise, only 8 percent of Gen Z participants claimed to feel “extremely confident” about their finances while 13 percent of Millennial respondents stated they felt “extremely confident” about their financial situation ten years ago.
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