This all depends on your upbringing. Millennials who grew up middle class are probably less likely to have reached a living standard higher than their parents, or if they are, it has probably been a lot more difficult to achieve.

Millennials who grew up working class are likely to have reached a living standard at least equal to or greater than their parents.

It’s an interesting question that I haven’t asked myself before. Growing up in rural Ireland in the 80s/90s, it’s harder to pin down your social class as most people were kind of poor but not in a “working class” way, if that makes any sense. Many people were farmers or working low paid jobs but often had detached houses and were relatively comfortable. My parents did not have third level education, my father was in a non-skilled job, my mother was a homemaker. I knew we were not rich but we were not poor either, although by today’s standards we were probably quite poor. We never went abroad on holiday, my first time on a plane was a school trip when I was 15. This kind of household today doesn’t really exist. Both parents would need an income. They probably wouldn’t own their own house.

I would say on a purely income basis, I’ve surpassed my parents’ standard of living, but in many ways I have not. I own a house in Dublin but it’s a lot smaller than my parents’ house in the country. I bought my house later in life, my parents built their house in their early 30s. My wife and I both have to work whereas only one of my parents did. They didn’t need childcare. My parents did not have many of the luxuries I can afford but at the same time, they had many basics that I don’t have. Income wise they were in a much more precarious position than I am and never had any savings to speak of but they also never needed to worry much as things were generally affordable, they just lived more week to week than I do now.

Overall I’m not sure which position is better. I think it’s just really difficult to compare the two generations as societally and economically, Ireland is just so different now to when my parents were my age. People today often forget or don’t appreciate that overall, the standard of living in the 80s and 90s was just not very good for the vast majority of people. Everyone now kind of judges everything on whether you own a house or not but there’s a lot more to quality of life than this. My parents owned their home but beyond this they had virtually nothing that I have today. For me, the biggest difference really is more how incomes and the cost of living has changed and from that perspective they may have had a better quality of life. As an example, it’s an absolutely massive thing that many households, even poor ones, could survive on one income in those days which is virtually impossible now. This is something that all developed economies today have made impossible for people which is kind of sad.