Google the word ‘Millennials’ and you’ll find close to 40 million page references. It seems as though Millennials are everywhere, quietly launching a hostile takeover of the entire world. In fact, you might even say Millennials’ have had a yuge 2016 by giving the world President-elect Trump and Brexit.
Consider that in the UK approximately three-quarters of Millennials wanted to Remain in the European Union, but only one-third of them actually voted in the referendum against total national turnout of 72%. Millennials make up a quarter of the UK population totaling some 16 million and had they bothered to actually turn up and vote, Millennials would have have easily tipped the scales and stopped Brexit that won by a margin of some 1,268,759 votes.
Closer to home in the US, Secretary Clinton won Millennial voters overall with a national margin of 19 points in 2016, four points lower than President Obama’s 23-point margin in 2012. The US Census Bureau says there are some 84 million Millennials in the US, and they officially surpassed Baby Boomers in 2015 as the largest living generation. In 2016, President-elect Trump won three key swing states that ultimately decided the election result – Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – by a total of just 79,646 votes. In other words, that tiny sliver of votes is essentially a statistical error when compared to the 136.6 million votes cast overall.
If you look at how Millennials voted in 2016 compared to 2012, their overall vote share and turnout went down, and so did the margin of victory in each state. Crucially, in the three key swing states Secretary Clinton under-performed President Obama by five points in Michigan, 17 points in Pennsylvania and 20 points in Wisconsin – all among Millennials. In Pennsylvania, Secretary Clinton won Millennials by 9 points and in Wisconsin, just 3 points. In other words, had Millennials voted in the same proportion and party affiliation in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they did in 2012, Hillary Clinton would be President-elect today instead of Donald Trump. Given the closeness of each race, absentee and apathetic Millennials made all the difference and decided the election simply by not voting.
With so much at stake, no less their future, the question therefore is why aren’t Millennials voting? It is easy to point out the generational differences between young and old, and how much easier it is for Millennials to instantaneously express themselves via social media clicktivism as opposed to the laborious time consuming process of waiting in line once every four years and turning up to vote at the ballot box. For the most part, older voters also tend to be less technologically proficient and more private in expressing their political views and therefore accustomed to voting in the real world compared to the virtual world. Except there’s just problem; real votes in the ballot box are worth more than likes on Instagram or Facebook.
Like Baby Boomers and Seniors, the oldest Millennials actually knew what life was like before before cell phones, smartphones, and the Internet. The middle and youngest Millennials do not, and they have more or less grown up living two parallel lives one in the physical world, and another simultaneously in the digital world. These digital native Millennials have been so immersed in the virtual world online that there is a tendency to forget we actually all live and breathe in the physical world. In the digital world you can easily surround yourself with people just like you, who think like you, talk like you, vote like you and are only like you. Inhabitants in the real world regularly disagree with each other and are readily exposed to the beautiful diversity of cultures, ideas and opinions.
Suffice it to say by 2020 Millennials will comprise 40% of eligible voters in the US and by 2025 some 75% of the global workforce. Millennials’ impact has extended far beyond their peer group and radically transformed the experience for everyone beit politics or the way we now consume media, move around, live, eat, bank, buy, sell and swap. Over the next decade Millennials will gradually take over the planet to become the dominant economic, political and cultural force shaping all aspects of our lives and the way the world functions. No business model is safe, leader secure or status quo not ripe for disruption. Not convinced? Consider this:
- 93% of Millennials have access to the internet (Nielsen)
- 85% of Millennials use smartphones (Nielsen)
- 77% of Millennials say their phone is with them all the time (Nielsen)
- 25% of media consumption now via mobile device (Facebook data)
- 84% of Millennials don’t trust traditional advertising methods (Association of National Advertisers)
- 71% would rather go to the dentist than listen to banks (2015 Millennial Disruption Index)
- Only 33% of Millennials have a credit card (2016 Bankrate Money Pulse Survey)
- 89% of Millennials are active on social media (Nielsen)
- 34% of Millennials prefer a brand that uses social media (Association of National Advertisers)
- 70% of Millennials are more inclined to trust what their peers think about a purchasing decision than other (Association of National Advertisers)
- 46% of Millennials trust their employers (EY 2016)
These current data points should be illuminating and will have profound impacts for all major industries in the years to follow. Millennial’s behavior is disrupting all behavior. Millennial consumption patterns are influencing all consumption patterns. In fact, virtually everything has now been Millennialized. Millennials aren’t going away and their influence is only going to grow exponentially over the decades ahead.
Whether you realize it or not, we’re all becoming Millennials.
Jeremy K. Balkin is the author of The Millennial Book: How to Win When Millennials Rule the World (Lid Publishing)