Youth Study Estonia

What is Estonian Youth Worried About for the Next Decade?

The graph below displays the percentage of respondents aged 14-29 in Estonia who perceive each listed topic as a potential issue for the country over the next decade. The disproportionate amount of people listing low wages and pensions as a concern stands out as a key worry that occupies roughly half of the respondents. A comparably small share of respondents expressed a worry over the weakening of democracy or a loss of national identity.

What do the worries of Estonian youth look like in a regional comparison?

In the second graph, we isolate the three issues that Estonian youth identified as the most important issues for the next ten years: low wages and pensions, inequalities, and climate change. In a regional comparison to the other Baltic states and the Visegrád countries, among these key issues, respondents in all countries ranked low wages and pensions as their primary concern.

Key Take-Aways

• A whooping half of young people in Estonia consider low wages and pensions a pressing concern for their country in the coming decade.
• Young people in Estonia have little fear of a potential weakening of democracy, but almost one third of them consider inequalities as a pressing issue for their country within the coming decade.
• The concern with low wages and pensions is shared among all countries of the Baltics and the Visegrád group.

On the Data

The data was taken from the 2023 Study Personal Optimism, National Pessimism, Trust in Europe. A Comparison of Values, Attitudes, and Plans of Young People in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia. It investigates the opinions of people aged 15-29 years on a broad range of topics such as education, employment, political participation, family relationships, and values. Read the full study here.