The Anxious Generation - Young Brits Gripped By Insecurity

Poll finds young Brits feel less safe, see fewer opportunities and fear the NHS is slipping.

New polling of British 18-30 year olds, conducted by Adam Smith Insights as part of its Anxious Generation series, reveals a generation gripped by insecurity on almost every front.

The nationally representative poll of British 18–30-year-olds finds that three-quarters believe the risk of the UK being drawn into war has grown, six-in-ten are worried about violent crime where they live, and a similar share expect good jobs to become harder to find. Women, in particular, are markedly more pessimistic about the quality of NHS services than men.

From the war in Ukraine to tensions in the Middle East, global instability looms large. That fear is fuelled not only by ongoing conflicts abroad, but also by the knowledge that Britain’s own safety depends on the reliability of sanctions and border controls. As the Adam Smith Institute points out, sanctions work only when tightly enforced and paired with a broader economic-statecraft strategy, something the UK still lacks. An unreliable sanctions regime, combined with record flows of people across UK borders feeds the sense that hostile states can reach Britain.

Concern about violent crime at home has become mainstream. With small-boat crossings hitting record highs, city populations are rising faster than police numbers can adjust. Concern about violent crime is no longer confined to particular neighbourhoods or demographics; it is now the majority position in every ethnic group surveyed.

Years of sluggish growth have eroded confidence that hard work will be rewarded with meaningful, well-paid employment. Meanwhile, young women - frequent users of reproductive and mental-health services - are especially sceptical that the NHS is keeping pace with demand.

KEY FINDINGS:

Risk of war

• 75% say the risk of war involving the UK is greater today than five years ago.

• 27% “much greater”, 48% “somewhat greater”. Fears span party lines: 71% of young Conservatives, 70% of young Labour voters and 79% of young Reform voters agree.

Violent crime

• 61% are concerned about violent crime in their area.

• 19% “very”, 42% “somewhat”. Concern is high across ethnic groups (64% of Black 18-30-year-olds, 60% of White).

Job prospects

• 60% think it will become more difficult to find well-paid, satisfying jobs over the next five years.

• 26% “much more difficult”, 34% “somewhat more difficult”. Just 25% expect things to get easier.

NHS quality

• Women are dramatically more negative than men.

• 55% of young women say NHS quality has worsened (vs 36% of young men). Only 26% of women think services have improved, compared with 43% of men.

Methodology:

Adam Smith Insights ran a poll on behalf of its sister think tank, the Adam Smith Institute, of a nationally representative sample of GB adults:

• Nationally representative poll of UK 18 - 30 year olds in the UK.

• Poll conducted via online panels

• Field dates 8 July – 10 July 2025

• N = 1338

• Poll weighted to population targets to match GB 18-30 year old population profile across age, gender, region, ethnicity, and 2024 general election vote using ONS 2021 Census data, age-by-vote distributions derived from Ipsos’s post-election analysis: “How Britain voted in the 2024 election”, national vote share data from the Electoral Reform Society’s 2024 general election results, and YouGov/BES polling.

• The poll results, with a median completion time of approximately 5 minutes, has a margin of error of ±2.7%.

• Respondents were filtered for completion quality (e.g., straight-lining, speeding), and responses with incomplete or invalid data were excluded from analysis. No imputation was applied.