How happy are SA’s middle-class youth?

The huge problem of SA’s unemployed youth will rightly be at the centre of discourse during Youth Month. It’s not only that SA has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world — reported by Stats SA in Q1 of 2024 as 45.5% among people aged 15 to 34 years — but also that this intolerable rate is perpetually trending upwards.

At the sidelines though, there are also other conversations happening regarding the state of the nation’s youth. How are the lucky ones who have managed to enter the workforce actually faring? How are they living their lives? And how are they feeling about SA and their future here? 

In the story of those who have attained a tertiary education, who are thankfully on career paths, who have joined the consumer class and become taxpayers, we get glimpses of the country SA could be if we could only expand and amplify opportunities for all our young people to develop their potential and be productive and contributing citizens — that's according to results of the latest BrandMapp survey of the country's mid- to top-income earners by consumer insights consultancy WhyFive.

“The BrandMapp universe focuses on roughly 13-million SA adults aged 18 years and up, living in households with a monthly income of R10,000 or more, and we estimate that about 5-million of them are aged between 18 and 35 years,” says Brandon de Kock, BrandMapp's director of storytelling.

“This is the country’s well-educated cohort of the youth market with 51% having already attained a tertiary qualification and 68% saying they're aiming to keep studying. Unlike so many of their peers in lower income groups, they have choices when it comes to the lives they want to lead and fulfil their aspirations.

“To be clear, the young BrandMapp respondents under 35 years are a picture-perfect representation of the demographic reality of SA in 2024 with 80% of them identifying as back adults, 10% as white, 7% as coloured and 3% as Indian/Asian.”

Aspirations

BrandMapp tells the current story of the mid-to-top income youth by contrasting their views and habits with those in the same income bracket who are over 35 years old.

When asked what they expect to be doing over the upcoming year, the younger generations reveal an understandably different life path from the older generations: 23% of them are looking forward to graduating this year, 40% are hoping to buy or upgrade their cars and 46% would really like to find a new or better job.

“What I love is that 39% say they’d like to start a new business this year,” says De Kock.

“There’s a thought that young people in SA don’t really have an entrepreneurial spirit, but the data here shows differently. It either means that we have messed up completely and not given them any faith in the economy or that we’ve misjudged them because their entrepreneurial mindset is clearly strong. Whatever their triggers, its cause is to celebrate, even if only a small percentage of them actually manage to do it.

“Can you imagine what SA could be like if only more of our young people had the same educational benefits as this segment of the youth population? Innovation, new business development and economic activity would be shooting off the charts.”

Emigration

However, the downer comes in response to the question: “How likely is it that you would emigrate from SA in the next five years, that is move and live in another country?” Half of our well-educated, mid-to-top income young people said that either emigration is “very likely” or “likely” for them.

“Even if this is mostly aspirational and doesn’t turn out to be practical, it’s obviously a huge concern,” says De Kock.

“We have to consider that these digital natives are online; their world is a smaller, well-connected place and it's easy for them to see clearly that with their levels of education, they would be better off living and working in other countries with stronger currencies and economies. What this data says to me is that 50% are thinking that the grass is a whole lot greener overseas and that’s a radical indictment of our country.”

LGBTQ+ sensitivity

Of the BrandMapp respondents over 35, only 3% identify as being LGBTQ+, which is in line with global averages that are about 4%. However, looking at the youth, there’s a large increase when it comes to sexual orientation and gender fluidity, with 8% identifying as LGBTQ+.

“It’s the next two columns that I think tell the story of a significant, proper generational shift in mindset that is fascinating, especially to marketers,” says De Kock.

“While 41% of youth do not identify as LGBTQ+, they are supportive of the community — only about a quarter of the over-35s say the same thing. This means if you or your brand steps over a line such as making an off-colour joke about sexual orientation or gender, you won’t rise the ire of too many people over 35, but you are going to offend or upset half of the economically active youth market.”

Financial security

Bearing in mind that young BrandMapp respondents are not part of the unemployed youth segment that are struggling in the country, they have a much more optimistic viewpoint when it comes to their financial security.

In response to the question as to how they now feel about their finances, 51% of them report that they are either “much better off” or “much better off” than they were compared to two years ago, and only 33% report that their financial situation had worsened.

“What we are seeing here is that more than half are doing better, getting higher and higher paid jobs, and perhaps also getting better at managing their finances,” says De Kock.

“Because these are young people, it’s not surprising that a good portion of them are on an accelerated path. If we include the 16% who say their financial situation is much the same, that makes 67% of people under 35 living in the taxpaying households of SA who are feeling at least as well off as, if not better, than they were in 2022. So, life is actually quite good for them; they’ve got the education, they’ve got jobs and they are moving up life’s ladder.

“If you’re not part of the unemployed youth segment, you have reasons to feel hopeful. This only highlights that if we want the world to be a better place, if we want SA to be a better country and a hopeful place to live, then we must find the ways to get our unemployed youth into tertiary education and training, and into jobs, so that they too can start their journeys on the continuum of life. Once they’ve got these basic opportunities, life can turn into an adventure to be lived rather than some kind of challenge to be solved.”

 The changing nature of being a young person in SA

A range of BrandMapp data weaves the story of being young in a modern world, showing contrasts with the experiences of youth of the older generations.

Almost half (47%) of the under 35s in mid-to-top income households don’t own cars, for instance. “That’s something that perhaps hasn’t changed over the generations,” say De Kock. “But what is different is that young people today have a whole lot more options available, like ride-sharing for example, where we measure 39% of them using Uber and 38% using Bolt on a regular basis. It’s a far cry from the world of hitchhiking and begging mom and dad for a lift that previous generations had to deal with.”

Young people are also benefiting from the delivery age with half these youth frequently getting food deliveries to their door through services like Mr D and Uber Eats. A quarter (25%) of under 35s report eating fast foods twice a week or more, with a majority getting takeaways a few times a month, and only 2% not eating fast foods at all.

Half of young people in the middle market also embrace the convenience of these modern times by getting their groceries delivered to the door at least once a month. 

“There’s no doubt that the youth of SA are in for a turbulent ride over the next decade, along with everyone else, but at least we’ve been able to identify a reasonably large group of highly skilled, educated and ambitious young people who are willing and able to lead the charge. They really can be part of shaping their own futures, and all the rest of us need to do is give them half a chance,” says De Kock. 

Get the consumer insights you need to make informed decisions

BrandMapp 2023 insights are now available directly from the BrandMapp team at WhyFive Insights and by subscription via Telmar, Softcopy, Nielsen and Eighty20. For data access, email Julie-anne@whyfive.co.za .

Visit the WhyFive website for an overview of what’s in the new data.

This article was sponsored by WhyFive.