Gen Z support for communism and socialism in the United States has risen as young adults confront high living costs, unaffordable housing and growing economic insecurity, according to analysis and interviews with two American teenagers.
A Cato Institute survey found that 38% of 18 to 29-year-olds viewed communism favourably, compared with almost a third of those aged 30 to 44. Support among the youngest group was twice as high as among 45 to 54-year-olds and three times higher than among people aged 55 to 64.
The findings have unsettled people who associate communism with the economic hardship and political repression of former Soviet bloc countries. But the young Americans interviewed said their generation largely understands the term as an economic idea rather than as a description of an authoritarian political system.
Fenley Scurlock, 18, a co-author of Down to Business and philosophy student at Brown University, and Harper Bruner, 17, a history student at Stanford Online High School, said many young people had no personal memory of the Soviet era.
“We grew up without memories of the Soviet era,” Bruner said. “We view these terms more abstractly and associate words like communism with resources rather than with authoritarianism.”
Economic frustration drives support for socialism
Interest in the ideas has grown alongside heightened political debate. Analysis by the consultancy AKAS found that Google searches for communism in the US were at an all-time high, up 82% since 2006.
A separate analysis of 684 million English-language news pages published globally between 2016 and 2026 found that mentions of socialism were now at a similar level to mentions of capitalism. References to communism remained lower, but had reached a recent high.
Bruner said young adults were encountering a confusing mixture of terms, including communism, socialism, utilitarianism and authoritarianism, and were turning to Google and artificial intelligence tools for explanations.
She said politicians and commentators had contributed to the confusion by repeatedly using the words in public debate. President Trump mentioned communism 81 times during the two weeks surrounding 4 July, as warnings about the ideology intensified. Calling opponents “communists” was described as one of his tactics ahead of the midterm elections.
Scurlock said Republican attempts to use socialism and communism as warnings could instead be making the ideas appear attractive to younger voters.
“Republicans are used to labelling measures like universal healthcare and universal basic income […] as ‘socialism’ or ‘communism’, which they use as scare words,” he said. “But when you see something that looks good for people being labelled socialism, or communism, you think, ‘Well, those things seem good, maybe that means that socialism is good’.”
Survey figures cited in the analysis showed that 53% of US 18 to 29-year-olds viewed socialism favourably, compared with 45% who viewed capitalism favourably.
The figures were linked to deteriorating economic prospects for young adults, including rising housing costs, student debt and low wages. The average age of a first-time home buyer had risen from 29 in 1981 to 40 in 2025, according to the material.
“I think the problem is the lived economic frustrations associated with high costs of living, soaring house prices, student debt, low student wage,” Bruner said. “So, when you live under these difficult market conditions, the ideas and promises of universal equity or wealth redistribution naturally catch your attention.”
Bruner, who had volunteered in support of Hispanic immigrants, said she had witnessed severe inequality in access to education, housing and technology. Some people, she said, lacked basic items including pens, pencils, nappies, period products and paper.
Young Americans question the current economic system
Scurlock said his generation was increasingly critical of what it saw as a form of crony capitalism, in which large corporations, wealthy donors and monopolies exerted significant influence over politics and public life.
“In the last 40 years …we’ve seen large corporations become a sort of authoritarian entity in themselves,” he said, pointing to billionaires buying media companies, wealthy donors funding political candidates and multinational corporations becoming “too big to fail”.
He also criticised the outsourcing of labour to China, where he said workers were often underpaid and sometimes underage, as well as what he described as corruption caused by corporate interference in government.
“Young people look at our current system specifically in America and see that this system isn’t working,” Scurlock said.
The interviews suggested that favourable views of communism and socialism did not necessarily represent support for the regimes historically associated with those terms. Instead, they reflected a search for alternatives among young people who believe the existing economic system has failed to deliver security or equality.
Scurlock said his generation wanted stronger regulation and greater influence over economic decisions. “We want more regulation, more individual ground-level say in the economy and less of one CEO at the top throwing $100 million to secure the election of a candidate who cuts their taxes,” he said.
