Non-College Youth Need Information and Opportunities to Engage in Civic Life

Many young people find access to civic learning and community engagement opportunities through their college campuses. However 6 out of 10 young people ages 25-29 do not have college degrees, and 32% have no college experience at all. Furthermore, as the cost of higher education increases, more and more youth are exploring alternatives other than college: according to one survey, 63% of young people are interested in non-college options after high school. 

However, these “non-college” youth face significant issues. Unemployment is higher among non-college youth than among young people of the same age with a college education. They also get less access to political information and have appear to have lower access to the kinds of support and resources that are critical to civic participation—similar to what we've found in our research on civic deserts. As a result, in part, of some of those inequities, non-college youth are less likely to be civically engaged and, specifically, to vote. 

A subset of these young people often called “opportunity youth,” who are both not in college and unemployed, are also less civically engaged than their peers who are employed or have college experience. They are also more likely to be from historically marginalized groups: Indigenous, Black, and Latino teens, and also more likely to live in the South. The rate of opportunity youth has remained steady over the past decade: about 7 percent of young people. 

In order to increase voting and civic engagement among non-college youth and opportunity youth, it is important to understand what impacts these young people’s likelihood to vote and ability to engage in civic life. Based on findings from CIRCLE’s Pre-2024 Election Youth Survey, this analysis highlights that these groups of young people face some barriers and inequities that can be addressed right away, but also systematic issues that will take concerted efforts from institutions and communities to change.

Note: Throughout this analysis, “non-college youth” refers to young people without any college experience, not just those without a college degree.

Early Civic Learning Experiences Lacking for Non-College Youth

The inequities in civic access and opportunities between college-educated and non-college youth often begin much earlier in life. On average, young people who end up going to college had much higher access to civic learning experiences in high school, including taking civics classes (60% of non-college youth vs. 81% of youth with college experience) and being explicitly encouraged to vote by a teacher (44% of non-college youth vs. 61% of youth with college experience).

These experiences are critical: our research has shown, for example, that youth who have learned about voting in high school are more likely to vote later in life. For non-college youth that did have access to civic information in high school, there was a major difference in their likelihood to vote.

In our survey, across every type of civic learning experience we asked about, non-college youth who had those high school experiences were more likely to say they were extremely likely to vote in the 2024 election. In fact, these experiences made a bigger difference in likelihood to vote among non-college youth than they did among youth with college experience, highlighting the importance of K-12 civic learning for youth who may not go on to pursue higher education. 

Non-College Youth Are Getting Less Information about Politics

Another key reason that youth with college experience are more civically engaged is because of their access to political information. College youth often have direct contact with youth from organizations and campaigns on college campuses. On the other hand, non-college youth are contacted less by all types of organizations and institutions.

Our survey asked young people where or from whom they had seen or heard information about political issues. The findings reveal that non-college youth are significantly less likely to get such information from people they know (59% for non-college youth vs. 72% for youth with college experience), political parties (14% vs. 22%), community organizations (8% vs. 18%), and local (52% vs. 63%) or national (45% vs. 61%) media.

College and non-college youth, however, had similar rates of access to political information from artists, celebrities, and athletes (both 18%). Such “influencers” often use social media to communicate about issues and politics. While across multiple types of sources of political information opportunity youth also had low rates of access, notably, opportunity youth were slightly more likely to see political information from artists, celebrities, and athletes than both non-college youth and college youth.

Contact from Organizations and Parties Leads to Higher Likelihood to Vote

The lack of contact and information is likely a key driver of gaps in youth participation by educational attainment. However, when non-college youth are contacted they are much more likely to vote, suggesting a potential lever for change. The effect is especially notable for outreach from community organizations or political parties.

Interestingly, though information from celebrities appears to reach non-college youth more, it does not lead to a higher likelihood to vote. This may be because the young people most likely to see information from celebrities and influencers are those that have lower rates of voting, like opportunity youth. But it may also suggest that influencers and  celebrities are less effective motivators of youth electoral participation.  

Lack of Information May be Driving Less Interest In Issues

Because non-college youth often have different backgrounds and experiences than their college-educated peers, that may affect the issues that could motivate them to vote and become civically engaged. For example, youth with college experience were more likely than non-college youth to care about climate change, education, and abortion access, while non-college youth had higher rates of selecting jobs that pay a living wage, second amendment rights, and “None of the Above” as their top issues.

The higher rate of selecting “None of the Above” among non-college youth could be because they are less concerned with or informed about specific issues overall, or because they care about issues that were not included among the options in the survey. Both groups shared the same top issue of inflation and cost of living, signifying how important the issue is among all young people.

Non-college youth are also more likely to be unaffiliated with a political party. According to our survey, 38% of non-college youth and 44% of opportunity youth are unaffiliated with any political party, including a third party, compared to 26% of youth with college experience. 

While young people overall are more likely to be unaffiliated with a major party than older adults, and there are many reasons to be unaffiliated, it is possible that the lower rate of information about politics and contact from parties and campaigns for non-college youth are contributing to an even lower level of political party affiliation.

Non-College Youth in Communities 

Many youth engage in civic life through political homes: spaces where they can learn about issues, connect with others, and take action together. For college students that is often their campus or university community. For non-college youth, finding other political homes and avenues for community-building can be critical to their civic participation.

One tool that many youth have access to find or build such spaces—even in communities where there are few other civic resources—is social media. Non-college youth and college-educated youth are very similar in how they use social media, except that only 27% of non-college youth search for political information on social media, compared to 36% of college youth. That type of social media use may be associated with political participation: 54% of non-college youth who used social media as a tool to search for political information said they are extremely likely to vote in 2024, compared to 39% of those who did not.

Youth can also build community and find civic engagement opportunities through institutions like their church. While both college-educated and non-college youth attend church at similar rates, non-college youth are much less likely to have opportunities to exercise their voice and leadership in those spaces. Among youth who go to church, only 31% of non-college youth feel like young people make decisions in their congregation, compared to 42% of youth with college experience. Other CIRCLE research has shown the importance to future civic engagement of youth being able to develop and use their voice. 

The lack of opportunities for non-college youth to use their voice in institutions like their schools or church may contribute to youth feeling less invested in their communities, which in turn may lead to lower levels of civic and political engagement. While 62% of college-educated youth agree or strongly agree that they care about the future of their community, 51% of non-college youth feel the same.

Engaging Non-College Youth in 2024 and Beyond

Overall, it is clear that non-college youth face structural barriers to civic engagement including less access to political information and fewer civic learning opportunities in high school. This lack of support for their civic development is likely contributing to lower levels of civic participation among non-college youth, including lower voting rates. Communities and institutions must attend to the gaps in civic resources impacting non-college youth in order to grow voters equitably.