Malta’s Youths Are By Far More Concerned About Overdevelopment Than Climate Change And COVID-19, Survey Finds
Malta’s youths appear to be concerned with the country’s overdevelopment and environmental issues than climate change and COVID-19, a new survey has unveiled.
EY, a global organisation, conducted a survey among over 750 Generation-Z (ages 17-25) and Millennials (ages 26-40) in Malta between August and September of 2021.
Questions were specifically tailored according to current national issues, including sections on the environment, the economy, COVID-19 recovery, and society.
Regarding issues related to the environment, respondents were asked to rate their concern on overdevelopment, the environment in Malta, and climate change, among other national issues.
When asked what Malta’s biggest challenge is, 68% of respondents chose overdevelopment, ranking it as the island’s biggest challenge, followed by 55% choosing the environment.
This year, only 20% of respondents chose COVID-19 as Malta’s biggest challenge, as concerns on the pandemic appeared to have drastically plummetted, contrasting with last year’s whopping 59%.
Surprisingly enough, climate change ranked 7th in the list, with 20% of all respondents, illustrating that it is not considered a concern as much as it really should be.
However, Gen Z’s were way more likely to list climate change as a concern, in fact, 33% listed climate change and only 6% of Millenials did.
Traffic came third, with 26% of respondents overall ranking it as the island’s biggest challenge, also declining since last year’s survey.
Respondents were also asked to rate their concern by the impact of the pandemic, in terms of health and the economy, with five being the most concerned and one being the least.
When asked how concerned they are by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their health, both Millennials and Gen Zers gave a score of 2.7, both dropping since last year.
However, when asked how concerned they are about its economic impact, Millennials provided a 3.7 score and Gen-Zers a slightly lower 3.4 score, remaining almost the same as last year’s responses, showing that youths are still more concerned about its impact on the economy than the impact on health.
“Young people are still more concerned by the virus’s impact on the economy, rather
than the impact on their own health,” EY said.
But the fact still remains, that youths in Malta are mostly concerned about the overdevelopment that has engulfed the country, and the environment that suffers because of it.
“Considering their concerns for the environment, Malta’s youth believe the government should prioritise investing in pollution reduction and waste management, followed by governance and public education,” EY said.
“Young people today have developed a very strong environmental conscience. They do not hold back when it comes to their wishes for a better future and they are unwavering in their belief that Malta’s environment needs protecting,” it said.
The survey also found that around 70% of Millennials and Gen Z’s would rather live and work in another country than in Malta.
What do you make of these survey findings?
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