Since the 1950s, there has been an expectation that the next generation will be better off than their parents’ generation. However, new Gallup research conducted for the online discussion platform Debating Europe has found that the economic crisis has crushed this sense of progress. Europeans now expect the next generation to have less job security, less job satisfaction, less secure pensions, earn lower salaries, spend less time with their families and have less comfortable housing than their parents’ generation.

As recently as 2011, when Gallup conducted research examining pessimism towards the future, while they were not expecting any rapid improvement, Europeans overall were confident in their countries’ economic stability in the near future. But Gallup’s latest findings show that this feeling of optimism has collapsed.

Not everything is doom and gloom in this year’s survey, though. Respondents also said they expected the next generation to live in a cleaner environment, be more likely to live in peace, have more time for leisure activities, live longer, healthier lives and – in a world increasingly connected through the internet and social networks – be much more likely to keep contact with their friends.

Of the six countries surveyed, Poland was the most optimistic, with only 28% of people responding they felt pessimistic about the future for the next generation. Italy and France were the most gloomy, with over 65% of people answering they were pessimistic.

The survey, conducted mostly over phone, in April and May by Gallup, surveyed national representative samples of 5500 people aged 15+ across 6 EU Member States (representing over 70% of the population of the European Union). On Wednesday 15 May, Debating Europe and its partner think-tank, Friends of Europe, held an event in Brussels which promoted the poll findings, with Ruairí Quinn, Irish Minister for Education and Skills; Mariana Câmpeanu, Romanian Minister for Labour, the Family, Social Protection and the Elderly, and Androulla Vassiliou, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism & Youth.