Who likes the sharing economy? Most people, but especially millennials

Do you like sharing?

The advent of the ‘sharing economy’ is allowing people everywhere to partake in both using and sharing some of their most valued assets. Whether it’s a home through a service like Airbnb, or a car using an application like Uber, the process of sharing these assets safely with strangers has improved markedly.

Here at SurveyMonkey, we take an interest in understanding the sharing economy’s impact on everyday consumers and how opinions vary across demographics. We recently surveyed over 2,000 adults and weighted the panel based on several demographic variables, including age, race, sex, education, and geography.

Open to sharing your opinions—anonymously—on a broad range of topics? We’d love to hear from you. As a token of our thanks, we’ll donate fifty cents to the charity of your choice for every survey you take! Start taking surveys→

Here’s how our respondents perceive the sharing economy:

Respondents as a whole, have a positive experience from participating in the sharing economy.

For example, when asking respondents to rate their overall experience from using ride hailing services on a scale of 1 to 5 stars—1 being lowest and 5 being highest—more than half gave either a 4 or 5 star rating.

Looking at responses across certain demographics, however, gives us deeper insight into who the relative proponents and detractors are:

Age- the older our respondents were, the less positive they viewed the sharing economy.

Seeing as younger adults are tech savvy and are growing up in parallel to the rise of the sharing economy, their tendency to both normalize and enjoy shared services relative to older adults shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Political orientation- liberal respondents favored the sharing economy compared to conservatives or independents.

It’s hard to know for sure why responses varied widely based on political affiliation, but given that the majority of respondents in each party still gave a 4 or 5 star rating, both rider sharing companies and drivers should have no cause for concern.

Whether or not you enjoy participating in the sharing economy, there are certain benefits that are too clear to discredit.

As we reviewed earlier, young adults are by and large the biggest proponents of the sharing economy.

Here are some additional insights on why they’ve come to embrace this market most:

The growing demand for shared services, particularly among younger generations, are making companies optimistic on their future prospects. Airbnb, for example, is projecting profits of 3 billion dollars by 2020. This puts the company’s profitability at a higher level than several current fortune 500 companies. Whether or not this forecast comes to fruition, it’s clear that the sharing economy is set to keep growing.