Generation Z is unprecedentedly rich

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Editorial meetings at The Economist are often long. Stomachs can be heard rumbling as debates on, say, central-bank independence run through lunchtime and into the afternoon. But rarely has a theme prompted so many contributions as our recent cover package on Generation Z. As we report, people born between 1997 and 2012 are unprecedentedly rich. Yet much of the discussion about them focuses on how badly they are doing. A new book that is making waves, by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, is called “The Anxious Generation”.?

In that meeting The Economist’s Gen Z staff, whose numbers are growing fast, were quick to defend their cohort. As we explain in our leader, there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful about Gen Z. Indeed, perhaps the biggest intergenerational divide in our meeting was whether to use the British pronunciation of “zed” (cringe) or the American “zee” (duh). As a British millennial, I’m sticking with zed. My younger colleagues tell me I sound hopelessly out of touch, but we’ll zee about that.

Bo Franklin, senior digital editor

Editor’s picks

Generation Z is unprecedentedly rich

Millennials were poorer at this stage in their lives. So were baby-boomers

Reasons to be cheerful about Generation Z

They are not doomed to be poor and anxious

British boomers are losing out for the first time

A generation used to having everything its own way is not happy

How the young spend their money

They are woke, broke and complicated. Businesses should take note

Britons in their thirties are stuck in a dark age

Youth is wasted on the young. But wealth is wasted on the old

How the young should invest

Markets have dealt them a bad hand. They could be playing it better

Sponging boomers

The economic legacy left by the baby-boomers is leading to a battle between the generations