More Conservative With Age? Not Millennials or Gen Z.

What’s happening: Millennials in both the United States and the United Kingdom aren’t becoming more conservative with age. According to a Financial Times analysis, members of past generations (the Silent Generation, the baby boomers, and Generation X) have tended to become more conservative between the ages of 40 and 80. However, as millennials reach their early 40s, they are becoming more liberal and are 15 percent more liberal than they were expected to be.

On the issues: Millennials are much more likely to lean left on economic issues than past generations, favoring wealth redistribution policies. On environmental and social issues, these differences persist—more than half of American millennials think climate change is due to human activity, and 47 percent believe that America isn’t accepting enough of those who don’t identify as male or female. Generation Z is following in a similar vein, described by major pollsters as “progressive and pro-government.”

Why it matters: Generational leftism is prevalent in America’s youngest voting blocks. Gen Z, while reportedly only being moderately politically informed, is continuing to turn out in near-record numbers each election season, specifically for Democrats. The age-old wisdom of “conservative by thirty” is fading fast.