Millennials are the focal point of just about every large organization and company nowadays. This large and important generation is set to take over the workforce as well as become the target consumer in the future economy. In an effort to understand Millennials who chose to make the Washington DC Metro their home during the Great Recession, The Kogod School of Business put together the Kogod Greater Washington Index: Millennials in order to find out what Millennials want in a community.
According to the Kogod School, the new Millennials index was crafted to address two key questions for business and government leaders:
- What do Millennials want?
- How does the greater Washington area measure up to their needs?
The result is a list of 31 work and lifestyle items based on previous studies of Millennial habits and interests. This information was gleaned by surveying 300 Millennials–living in the greater Washington Metro–to determine how each of these items affects their decisions on where to live and work.
Here are a selection of items from the Kogod Greater Washington Index: Millennials that stood out:
On the topic of Jobs, the Index states that more than two-thirds of the surveyed Millennials said that having a job was the first or second most important factor in their decision about where to live and that the availability of jobs comes in at the number one most important factor to the group, with salary levels close behind. The Washington Metro scores 44 percent above the national average on this critical category.
Affordability is also important to Millennials, but this is not a highlight of this generation’s experience in DC: Only 9% of Millennials in our survey selected “This is an affordable place to live” as one of the reasons they reside in the greater Washington area, and most of those respondents came from counties that do not border the District of Columbia.
When it comes to Career Options, the Washington Metro is rated as very strong on professional jobs: One third of all residents are employed in information, finance, real estate, education, scientific services or management of companies. For comparison, only 19 percent of jobs nationwide are in these fields.
Millennials sure do love extra “stuff” too, and various Amenities have made the Washington Metro a very appealing place to this generation because of that. DC is the “fittest city” in America according to the American College of Sports Medicine, as well as the most walkable city in the nation according to a report by the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at The George Washington University. It also boasts a thriving bike share program, many public transit options and a robust network of parks and playgrounds.
So what does this all mean for the future success of DC as a Millennial haven? Read the entire Kogod Greater Washington Index: Millennials here to find out.