Gen Z Survey : Gen Z Survey: Committed to Human Rights, Worried about Democracy

In Western, democratic countries, young voters are more likely than ever before to vote for polarizing, illiberal figures. This trend was recently confirmed through the June 2024 European Parliament and the November 2024 presidential elections in the United States of America.

What does that drift mean for our value system, especially when it comes to human rights and democracy? The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Human Rights Hub set out to understand Gen Z’ subjective perspectives. Democracies can ebb and flow with challenges and populist overreach, but can the belief in values like freedom, equality, dignity, and fairness remain constant?

The good news is that yes, despite the uncertainties, young people across the political spectrum are attuned and committed to universal human rights. More than 1000 respondents from each of France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and the United States of America, overwhelmingly affirmed their commitment to the universality of human rights with 88%.

A majority of Gen Z is signaling a growing worry about their countries’ performance in protecting human rights and the state of democracy. Only 62% is convinced of democracy being the best form of governance. And even less, only 40% assess the democratic state in their home country as “(very) good” and already 21% as “(very) bad”.

About the respondents

The survey on human rights and democracy was conducted across five countries — USA (1,050 respondents), Germany (1,052), France (1,053), Hungary (1,053), and Poland (1,051) — using Dynata as research platform. After filtering out invalid responses through a control question, the final dataset included 5,156 respondents, with approximately 1,030 participants per country. All respondents were aged 16–24 years and completed a survey consisting of multiple-choice questions and one open-ended question. The survey was conducted between November 13 to 17 2024, following the re-election of Donald Trump as President of the USA, the collapse of the German coalition in government, and ahead of the Polish presidency of the EU Council.