For generations, the American Dream has been associated with a familiar series of milestones: get an education, build a career, buy a home, start a family and achieve greater financial security than the generation before you. Many members of Generation Z still want those things. But new research suggests a growing number are questioning whether they will actually be able to afford them.
Generation Z has entered adulthood during a period of dramatic economic and social change.
The oldest members of the generation are approaching 30. Many are establishing careers, considering homeownership, paying student loans, getting married or deciding whether they can afford to have children.
They are also confronting an American economy substantially different from the one their parents encountered at the same age.
New research from Ipsos published August 27 found that 28% of Gen Z Americans believe the American Dream is personally out of reach.
That does not mean the generation has abandoned the traditional American Dream.
In fact, Ipsos found almost the opposite.
Six in 10 Gen Z respondents still expect to own a home someday. More than half expect to marry, and approximately half expect to become parents.
The aspirations remain.
The timeline for achieving them, however, is changing.
Most Americans Still Believe in the American Dream
The idea that younger Americans have simply rejected the American Dream can be misleading.
Ipsos research released in August found that 68% of Americans still believe in the American Dream.
At the same time, 88% believe it is harder to achieve than it used to be.
That distinction is important.
Americans may still believe that education, work, homeownership and financial independence can produce a successful life while simultaneously believing the path toward those goals has become more difficult.
For Gen Z, that tension is unfolding as the generation moves deeper into adulthood.
Homeownership Remains a Goal — but a Difficult One
Few possessions have been as closely associated with the American Dream as a home.
A house historically represented more than somewhere to live. Homeownership could provide stability, allow families to accumulate equity and become an important source of generational wealth.
Gen Z has not necessarily abandoned that aspiration.
Ipsos reports that six in 10 members of Gen Z still expect to own a home during their lifetime.
But wanting a home and being financially positioned to purchase one are very different things.
Young adults must accumulate enough money for a down payment while also paying rent, transportation costs, insurance, food, student loans and other expenses.
Higher home prices and borrowing costs can push the amount needed to purchase a first home even further away.
For some young Americans, remaining with parents or returning to the family home has become part of the strategy.
Ipsos points to separate research showing financial considerations are frequently behind young adults moving home. Among adults ages 27 to 35 who had not purchased a home, three in 10 said they did not expect to ever buy one.
For others, however, moving home can provide an opportunity to reduce expenses and save toward a future down payment.
Rather than disappearing, homeownership may simply be moving further down the timeline.
Financial Independence Can Take Longer
Moving out of the family home has traditionally been treated as one of the defining transitions into adulthood.
Economic reality can complicate that transition.
The Federal Reserve’s 2026 Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households found that 47% of adults ages 18 to 29 received financial help from someone outside their household for at least one expense during the previous year.
That assistance covered everything from cell phone bills and general expenses to housing and transportation costs.
Nearly one-quarter — 23% — of adults ages 18 to 29 received outside help specifically with rent, mortgage payments, utilities or other housing costs.
Those numbers illustrate an important difference between earning an income and achieving complete financial independence.
A young adult can have a job and still need family assistance to maintain housing, transportation or other basic expenses.
That can affect the next milestone as well.
Money that might otherwise become a home down payment, emergency fund or retirement contribution may instead be needed for immediate living expenses.
Education Can Open Doors — and Create Debt
Higher education has long occupied another prominent place in the traditional American success story.
Go to college, develop valuable skills, obtain a better-paying job and use the resulting income to build a more secure life.
For millions of Americans, education continues to provide significant professional opportunities.
But financing that education can also create a financial obligation that follows borrowers well into adulthood.
Federal Reserve data show that 25% of adults ages 18 to 29 had student loans in 2025.
Among adults with student loans overall, 23% reported recent difficulty making payments. More than three-quarters of borrowers experiencing payment difficulties attributed those problems to affordability-related reasons.
Student debt does not automatically prevent someone from purchasing a home, starting a family or building wealth.
But monthly debt payments become another expense competing for the same dollars that could otherwise go toward those goals.
For Gen Z, the calculation surrounding education therefore extends beyond whether to attend college.
It can include what school to attend, how much debt to accept, what career opportunities a degree may provide and whether the expected income justifies the cost.
The Job Market Is Changing Too
The path from education to career is also becoming less predictable.
The Federal Reserve reported in May that concerns about finding or keeping a job increased in 2025.
More adults under 30 reported that being unable to find a job prevented them from working compared with the previous year.
At the same time, artificial intelligence is beginning to change how companies operate and what skills employers value.
That creates an unusual environment for workers beginning their careers.
Some occupations may expand because of AI and automation. Others could require fewer workers or substantially different skills.
The result is that Gen Z is entering a labor market in which the definition of a valuable skill could evolve considerably during the course of a career.
For a generation trying to plan decades into the future, that uncertainty matters.
Marriage Is Happening on a Different Timeline
Marriage is another traditional American milestone that has gradually shifted later in life.
For previous generations, getting married relatively young was often followed by purchasing a home and having children.
Modern adulthood does not necessarily follow that sequence.
People may establish careers first, live independently longer, cohabitate before marriage or postpone marriage until they feel financially secure.
But Ipsos’ research suggests the desire for marriage has not disappeared.
Across 30 countries, 55% of Gen Z adults expect to get married or enter a civil partnership during their lifetime.
That suggests delayed marriage should not automatically be interpreted as rejection of marriage.
It may instead reflect a broader shift in when people believe they are ready for it.
Starting a Family Has Become an Economic Decision
Children have also historically been part of the traditional picture of the American Dream.
But parenthood carries substantial financial considerations.
Housing, food, healthcare, transportation and childcare can fundamentally change a household budget.
Those costs can become particularly difficult when they arrive while parents are simultaneously paying student loans, attempting to purchase a home or establishing themselves professionally.
Yet here again, younger adults have not necessarily abandoned the traditional milestone.
Ipsos found that roughly half of Gen Z expects to become parents.
The question for many may therefore be less about whether they want children and more about when they will feel financially prepared to have them.
That can push parenthood later, just as financial pressures can delay homeownership and marriage.
Gen Z May Be Rescheduling Success Rather Than Rejecting It
One of the more interesting conclusions emerging from the Ipsos research is that Gen Z’s aspirations are not necessarily as radically different from previous generations as popular stereotypes sometimes suggest.
Young Americans still express interest in homes.
They still expect marriage.
Many still want children.
They want financial security and successful careers.
What appears to be changing is the schedule.
Instead of education, career, marriage, homeownership and children arriving in relatively quick succession during early adulthood, those milestones can become spread across a much longer period.
Some may happen in a different order.
Others may never happen at all.
Success Is Also Becoming More Personal
The American Dream has never had one universally accepted definition.
For one person, success may mean owning a suburban home and raising children.
For another, it could mean operating a business.
Someone else may prioritize travel, flexibility, creative work or the ability to live without debt.
Younger generations also have access to career paths that barely existed for their parents.
Remote work can allow someone to build a career without living near a corporate headquarters.
Online businesses can reach customers around the world.
Creators can build audiences without traditional media companies.
Technology has made entrepreneurship possible with relatively little startup capital in some industries.
Those opportunities do not eliminate housing costs, debt or economic uncertainty.
But they do expand the ways younger Americans can define a successful life.
Is the American Dream Actually Out of Reach?
For most members of Gen Z, the answer appears to be more complicated than yes or no.
A generation in which 28% say the American Dream is personally out of reach is clearly expressing substantial concern about economic opportunity.
At the same time, most Gen Z Americans do not say the dream is beyond their reach.
And many continue to expect that they will eventually achieve some of its most traditional milestones.
The bigger transformation may be occurring in the distance between those milestones.
Buying a first home at 35 instead of 25 does not necessarily mean homeownership has disappeared.
Marrying later does not mean marriage has been rejected.
Living with parents while saving money does not necessarily mean someone has abandoned financial independence.
The traditional American Dream was often imagined as a ladder: education, career, marriage, house, children and retirement.
For Gen Z, it may increasingly look less like a ladder and more like a winding road.
