A new NBC poll of Gen-Z Americans has the online commentariat class buzzing – and may help explain the widening political gulf among the country’s ascendant generation. But perhaps the most shocking and alarming finding is how low marriage and family life falls on the priority list for young Americans.
The survey of 2,970 adults aged 18-29 asked respondents nearly 50 questions, but by far the one that has generated the most attention was, “Which of the following is important to your personal definition of success?”
Respondents were able to select up to three choices from this list: making your community or family proud; having enough money to do things you want to do; using your talents and resources to help others; having a job or career you find fulfilling; owning your own home; being married; having children; having no debt; financial independence; fame and influence; being able to retire early; having emotional stability; and being spiritually grounded.
Things got really interesting when the results were broken down along party lines and then between men and women. Those crosstabs exposed vast disparities between what Trump voters and Harris voters value, as well as between what young men and young women value. Here are the results:
The mainstream discussion of this poll has centered on the glaring differences in priorities between Trump voters and Harris voters. And indeed, the results show that Trump voters, male and female, are far more likely to value marriage and family life than Harris voters.
In particular, the fact that just nine percent of men who voted for Harris and six percent of women who voted for Harris said that having children is important to their personal definition of success should be setting off alarm bells for Democrats.
But conservatives should also be concerned by these results. While having children was the most popular response for Trump-voting men, only 34 percent identified that as important to their personal definition of success. Among Trump-voting women, having children came in sixth, at 26 percent, while getting married came in even lower, at just 20 percent.
For a society already facing record-low fertility rates, these data points are alarming beyond their political implications.
What they suggest is that decades of left-wing cultural conditioning which tells young girls that marriage and motherhood are a burden and that career ambitions are more fulfilling than family life have had a devastating effect even on girls who view themselves as conservative. An entire generation has now been trained by Hollywood, the media, and the education system to think of family as at best a secondary concern to career goals and at worst a burden on them.
What was once assumed as the foundation of adulthood has been replaced with a vision of life that begins and ends with self-centered desires. Some female college students now compare marriage to a “prison” and being “shackled at home” – despite the fact that many women raise families and lead successful careers.
This hesitancy toward family life is often justified by economic anxieties. 40 percent of Gen-Z respondents in the NBC poll said inflation and the cost of living were their most important economic concerns. We also know from prior polling that many Gen-Zers are delaying having families due to the housing affordability crisis.
Conservatives need a response to this. Bringing down costs and making the American Dream of owning a home affordable again is a good start. But the right should also give young people the courage to embrace having a family even if economic conditions aren’t perfect. Prior generations had big families with far less material wealth than most Americans enjoy today.
Family life isn’t just good for communities – it’s good for individuals as well. All of human history tells us that a life lived in service to others, namely one’s spouse and children, is a life well-lived.
One recent Forbes analysis proved this out. It found that Gen-Z is far more likely than older generations to delay major life events, from marriage and family formation to personal passions and even their own health, because career demands and financial pressures leave little room for anything else. But the study also revealed a cruel irony: employees who delay two or more of these life milestones are four times more likely to report burnout and six times more likely to say their jobs have harmed their mental health.
Clearly, deferring family for “stability” only produces instability. Older generations also faced debt and insecurity, but they built families first and figured out the rest later.
Moreover, statistics bear out that getting married and having children is the surest path to financial abundance. A husband and wife share costs, divide responsibilities, and build stability together in ways no individual can match. Family life is the solution to economic anxieties, not the cause of them.
One optimistic interpretation of the NBC poll is that some conservative young women assume family is inevitable, so they are currently prioritizing career and financial stability first, believing children will naturally follow.
Education could also play a role in these results. Trump-voting men are more likely to be blue-collar and insulated from anti-family rhetoric that saturates universities.
While these poll numbers are concerning, the lives of some conservative women tell another, more hopeful, story. A recent Wall Street Journal profile highlighted leaders like Sen. Katie Britt, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who show that faith, family, and career can coexist.
Conservative women are also pushing back against a different pressure: some voices on the right that shame women for doing anything outside the home. As Emily Zanotti observes, most working wives and moms are not “girlbossing” but deliberately balancing work and family in ways that put children first.
Still, this poll should still be a wake-up call. We must remember that the future does not belong to those who accumulate the most wealth or promotions. It belongs to those who raise the next generation with love, discipline, and faith.
Prosperity begins with family, and a culture that forgets that truth has no future.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
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