The COVID-19 epidemic has had a particularly intense impact on Italy which already had some of the worst values in Europe in terms of social and employment indicators for the new generations. Accordingly, if young people were already experiencing great difficulty in imagining a positive future, the new situation has added a further layer of uncertainty, which may take root and become insecurity if not properly managed.
The studies in this volume are based on the data from the first international survey on the state of the new generations in the age of Coronavirus and on post-pandemic expectations, which was funded by the Osservatorio Giovani dell’Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo di Studi Superiori and conducted by Ipsos between the end of March and the beginning of April 2020. The target of the survey was a representative sample of young people aged 18-34: about 2000 in Italy and 1000 in each of the other major European countries, namely Germany, France, Spain and the United Kingdom. The COVID-19 health crisis is recognised as being the biggest post-war crisis in Europe and in most developed economies.