Research report Volume 1, Issue 1 Open access
First edition theme: How young people in Kerala live, learn, work and decide
The Kerala Gen Z Report 2026
Screens, degrees, migration, civic silence and enterprise — a 399-respondent survey of young Kerala
Research conducted by the Community Leadership and Social Change Program Research Scholars, Department of Graduate Institute, DHI University (DHIU), India. Published open access by Moyan AI under CC BY 4.0.
- 399
- 38
- 21 May – 28 June 2026
- 2026-08-28
This report is the first primary survey of young Kerala published by Moyan Journal of Community & Society. Fieldwork ran between May and June 2026, collected 399 valid responses, and covered five themes.
Scope of the instrument
- Digital wellbeing
- Screen time, sleep, anxiety and coping behaviour.
- Education & employability
- How useful degrees feel, how skills are learned, and the role of AI in academic work.
- Migration
- How many want to leave, why, when, and whether they plan to return.
- Civic engagement
- Contact with local government and attitudes toward politics.
- Entrepreneurship & pluralism
- Startup appetite, barriers, media trust and cross-faith attitudes.
Findings
- Digital wellbeingScreens, sleep and the silence around stressShort-form video dominates attention, anxiety is routine, and isolation is the default coping strategy while professional help is almost never used.
- Education & employabilityA degree that does not convert into a jobOnly a quarter believe their degree makes them employable today, and half now learn job skills on YouTube rather than in a classroom.
- AI in educationAI is already the default study partnerGenerative AI has saturated Kerala's campuses faster than any policy response — a single respondent in 399 has never used it.
- Migration intentTwo in three are planning their exitMigration is now the baseline expectation rather than the exception, and money alone does not reverse it.
- Civic engagementA generation locked out of local governmentMost respondents cannot describe how ward governance works, yet a large minority still want to enter policy leadership.
- EntrepreneurshipHigh appetite for enterprise, no scaffoldingTwo thirds want to build something, but mentorship and awareness of state startup support are close to absent.
- Pluralism & mediaTrust in neighbours, distrust of the newsroomComfort across faith lines stays high while confidence in Kerala's media collapses — three in four say friction is manufactured for clicks.
Methodology & limitations
Sample design, instrument, response rates, and the limitations every reader should keep in mind.
Open data
Download the aggregate CSV, JSON and the full codebook under CC BY 4.0.
Cite this page
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Attribution with a link back is the only condition.
Community Leadership and Social Change Program Research Scholars & Valakkulam, Y. (2026). The Kerala Gen Z Report 2026. Moyan Journal of Community & Society, Volume 1, Issue 1. Department of Graduate Institute, DHI University (DHIU), India; published by Moyan AI. https://journal.moyanai.app/journal/kerala-gen-z-survey-2026Reference manager