Walk through any university campus or scroll through any youth-focused social feed in Australia and you’ll hear a common thread: young Australians are struggling. Gen Z — those born from the mid-1990s to early 2010s — is experiencing record levels of anxiety, depression, burnout, and stress. While every generation has faced pressure in different forms, the intensity and breadth of challenges facing young Australians today is unprecedented.

The question is no longer whether young people are struggling, but why — and what can be done about it.

1. The Weight of Financial Instability

Young Australians are coming of age during the harshest cost-of-living pressures in decades. rents are soaring. Groceries and utilities continue to climb. Home ownership — once the default path to adult stability — feels like a distant dream.

For many 18- to 30-year-olds, financial anxiety is not a passing phase; it’s a constant undercurrent. Uni students work multiple jobs just to afford rent. Young professionals earning decent salaries still feel like they’re “falling behind.” The psychological toll is real: chronic stress, sleep issues, and a sense of hopelessness about the future.

This financial backdrop shapes almost every other aspect of well-being — relationships, career planning, mental resilience, and identity.

2. Social Media: Connection or Comparison Trap?

Young Australians are the first generation to grow up fully immersed in the digital world — a place where validation, comparison, and identity can live or die in a newsfeed. TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat influence everything from self-image and friendships to career aspirations and romantic relationships.

Endless comparison — bodies, holidays, wealth, achievements — creates constant pressure to “perform” life. Even moments of relaxation are often turned into content. And in the middle of this hyperconnected world, trends like micro-spending, hustle culture, and even new Australian online casino ads circulating on social feeds can amplify anxiety, impulsive behaviour, and distraction.

Social media is both the lifeline and the stressor: a place where young people connect deeply, yet often feel emotionally depleted.

3. Climate Anxiety and Global Uncertainty

Few issues hit Gen Z harder than climate change. Young Australians have grown up with bushfires, floods, droughts, and political stagnation. For many, climate change isn’t an abstract environmental issue — it’s a looming existential threat.

This form of stress is unique. It mixes fear for the planet with anger at political inaction, guilt about personal choices, and uncertainty about what life will look like in 10 or 20 years. Psychologists now identify climate anxiety as a genuine and growing mental-health condition.

Add to that global geopolitical tension, pandemics, economic volatility, and the 24/7 news cycle, and young Australians are carrying an emotional load that feels perpetually heavy.

4. Academic Pressure and Early Career Stress

School and university life have intensified dramatically. ATAR pressure starts earlier. Competition for scholarships, graduate roles, and internships is fierce. Even high achievers feel they are constantly “not doing enough.”

At the same time, the early career landscape is more precarious than it was for previous generations. Contract work, gig jobs, insecure roles, and automation fears feed ongoing uncertainty.

This creates a cycle: high pressure → burnout → reduced performance → more pressure.

5. Loneliness in a “Connected” Generation

Despite being constantly online, Gen Z reports some of the highest levels of loneliness in Australia. Hybrid study, remote work, and digital-first relationships mean many young people lack deep, in-person support networks.

Social isolation can quickly snowball into anxiety, depression, and self-doubt — especially when everyone else seems to be living a perfect life online.

6. The Shifting Conversation: A Source of Hope

There is one positive development: young Australians are more open about mental health than any generation before them. They talk, they share, they ask for help. They are dismantling stigma in ways that reshape the national conversation.

Australia’s increasing access to mental-health services — telehealth psychology, online counselling, government initiatives, crisis hotlines — has helped, even if the system is far from perfect.

Gen Z’s willingness to confront their struggles has pushed workplaces, schools, universities, and governments to rethink how mental health is supported.

Where We Go From Here

Young Australians face pressures that are structural, digital, emotional, and financial. But they also possess extraordinary resilience and a willingness to fight for change — in climate action, social justice, workplace rights, and mental-health advocacy.

Supporting this generation requires more than self-care tips. It requires system-level reform: accessible mental-health care, stable housing, meaningful work, reduced digital harm, and stronger community support.

Gen Z isn’t the “anxious generation” — they’re the generation that refuses to pretend everything is fine. And that shift, more than anything, gives hope for a mentally healthier Australia.