Click here to read the FULL SURVEY on young people and the 2008 election from the most recent Choose or Lose research from MTV and CBS News.

 ^{THE STATE OF THE YOUTH NATION: 2008}

Interviews for this poll were conducted among 526 18 to 29 year-olds interviewed by telephonw April 10-15th 2008.

The poll was conducted jointly by CBS News and MTV. Respondents were part of nationwide representative samples identified in households previously interviewed by CBS News Polls, and from random-digit dial samples. The margin of error for this survey is +/- 4% points for results based on the entire sample.

Key Findings

I. THE CANDIDATES

• Not surprisingly, Senator Obama is the #1 Democratic choice of young people surveyed, besting Senator Clinton 48% to 37%.
  • Both Clinton and Obama supporters exhibit similar levels of enthusiasm for their candidate – just under two thirds strongly favor him or her.
  • Also, less than 4% of Clinton and Obama supporters report disliking the other candidate – indicating that young Democratic voters may very well support whichever candidate gets the nomination
• Either Obama or Clinton beat McCain in a general election match-up by roughly the same margin (52/39 Obama, 51/41 Clinton)

II. THE ISSUES

• The economy is the number one issue youth say will determine their vote this year.
  • Young people's concerns about the economy have more than doubled since Summer 2007 (10% called it the top issue facing their generation in June 2007, while 22% call it the top issue now).
  • Only 1/3rd of young people today think their prospects for finding jobs are excellent or good.
  • 65% say the candidates are not spending enough time addressing jobs for young people.
• The 2nd most important issue for young voters is the war in Iraq (25% say #1)
  • Two-thirds want a President who will end the war in the next 2 years. 
• The environment, education and healthcare follow
  • 1 in 5 say the environment is the biggest problem young people will need to address over the next 20 years.
  • 47% say the candidates are not spending enough time addressing global warming; 65% say they have not addressed specific plans to help reduce oil and gas use by consumers. 

III. THE CAMPAIGN

• As evidenced in primaries and caucuses nationwide – and reinforced here – young people are engaged and empowered this year.
  • Young Americans see themselves having at least as much influence as other age groups in deciding the next President – 31% think they will have more influence than older age groups, nearly double the 17% who thought so in June 2007.
  • Three in four young Americans think the 2008 Presidential election will be the most, or one of the most, important elections of their lifetime.
  • 77% say the election has been interesting; 84% are paying a-lot or some attention to the campaign, up from 58% in June 2007. 
• America’s youth lead multi-platform lives, managing to cram 34 hours of activity into a 24 hour day, and they’re consuming campaign news from a wide variety of media outlets. 
  • Surprisingly, newspapers and TV are their number one resource: 93% say they get a lot or some of their political information here.
    • 49% say they get a lot/some of their political news from talking and e-mailing with friends, and 43% get a lot/some from late night talk and comedy shows. 41% get a lot/some from web sites and blogs.
• A large majority of young people - 65% - say coverage of the Presidential campaign has so far focused too much on matters of race and gender.

Click here to read the FULL SURVEY on young people and the 2008 election from the most recent Choose or Lose research from MTV and CBS News.

• 71% say they like Obama personally, compared to 53% for Clinton and 51% for McCain.
• 52% say Clinton has clear plans to solve the country's problems, compared to 50% for Obama and 34% for McCain.
• Young people feel Democrats care more about the problems of young people – by a healthy margin
  • 43% say Obama cares a lot, followed by Clinton (33%) and McCain far in the distance (11%)