The Future Report

As futurists, we study trends and factors that impact the future. However, futurists are not crystal ball gazers. We don’t just make wild predictions of what the future might be. Rather, we gather evidence and extrapolate the trends that are set to shape the years ahead. Businesses and consumers have encountered huge amounts of change in the last few years and this doesn’t appear to be slowing dow...

It is true that over the last decade, Artificial Intelligence has been increasingly applied to our everyday lives. Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. One of our trend predictions for 2023 has been Humanit-AI, where we predict that humans and machines will increasingly work closely with one another, and continue to be...

Happy 2023 and welcome to another season of The Future Report podcast! We are delighted that you have joined us again for more insightful discussions around trends and the future. In today's episode, our host, Ashley Fell, sits down with social researcher and futurist, Mark McCrindle, to explore how we can go about understanding, interpreting, and even strategically leveraging the trends that are...

If you can believe it, Christmas is upon us and we are about to say goodbye to another year. As we look ahead to the future, it’s also a worthwhile endeavour to look back at the year that was. From demographic changes to political events. From social trends to consumer shifts and technology trends. We’re discussing some of the most memorable societal events from 2022 in this episode, with McCrindl...

Generations. Always such a fun topic for us to discuss. Why? Because everyone belongs to one. There are various generations intermingling in our workplaces and communities, so understanding the unique perspectives of each one is vital. It was George Orwell who said, ‘ Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after i...

They’re the first generation to be fully born in the 21st Century. The oldest of them began being born in 2010, the same year Instagram and the iPad launched. Yes, we’re talking about Generation Alpha – the cohort born between 2010 and 2024. While the youngest of them are yet to be born, the oldest of them are about to become teenagers. In today's episode, our host, Ashley Fell, sits down with the...

Recently, the world’s population ticked over 8 billion people. That’s right. 8. Billion. We’ve reached this latest billion in record time, and the majority of population growth we've seen has occurred in the last 100 years. In today's episode, our host, Ashley Fell, sits down with demographer and futurist, Mark McCrindle, to discuss if this historic milestone is an exciting one, or something to be...

Starting out in your career is a memorable experience. Often our first foray into paid work can be daunting, exciting, overwhelming and memorable - all at the same time. The world of work is changing, especially for today’s school leavers, Generation Z. They are entrepreneurial, career mobile, and could have 18 jobs across 6 careers in their lifetime! In today's episode, our host, Ashley Fell, sit...

There are many factors that contribute to our overall health and wellbeing. This can include physical exercise, sleep, sense of satisfaction, sense of meaning and purpose, and how one feels their life is going. Holistically it is often a blend of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects. In a a study of employed Australians that McCrindle conducted with Reventure, we found that the majori...

Have you ever kept a diary of how you spend your time? Well, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has. They have released their time use study which measured the daily activities of 2,000 diverse households, and of those aged 15 years and over in those households, had them keep a diary over two days and account for all their time. It’s a pretty fascinating study and reveals a lot about how much tim...

Gen Z and Millennials describe those in their teens, twenties, and thirties today. This life stage is often characterised by the need to keep up with their peers and the culture around them. As society continues to adapt to changing lifestyles and economic conditions, our team at McCrindle was commissioned by Afterpay to conduct a study about Gen Z and Millennials. The study sought to determine ho...

Avatars. NFTs. Blockchain. Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency. Virtual and augmented reality. What do all these words have in common?  They relate to The Metaverse. While it may have begun as a vague concept, over the last year it has gained immense traction, and many are now calling it the future of the internet. Particularly as it relates to Generation Alpha. Gone are the days when kids plugged a cons...

Over the last few years, remote work or work-from-home became widespread. This is because it wasn’t something that was just promoted or strongly encouraged. It was mandated. And it went on for some time. Because of various lockdowns and restrictions, some companies work-ed-from-home, full-time, for years. And possibly still are. Now, as we (with fingers crossed) say goodbye to lockdowns and work-f...

Breaking into the housing market is a hot topic amongst today’s younger generations with skyrocketing house prices, the rising cost of living, and low wage growth making it pretty difficult to get a foothold. So, if younger generations can’t break into the housing market, what sort of impact will this have on their financial aspirations and wealth accumulation? Joining Ashley Fell to shed some lig...

While the Baby Boomers are currently more active in the workforce for their age than the generation before them, over the next decade we will see a significant changing of the guard as the youngest of the Baby Boomers move past 65 and ease out of the workforce. When they do, they will leave a very significant knowledge, labour, and leadership gap for the following generations to take up. But that...

Generation Z describes those born between 1995 and 2009, placing them today aged between 13 and 27. While many of them are students, in just a few years they will comprise a third of the workforce. In our work we find so many people wanting to understand the mindset and perspective of Gen Z; who they are, what is important to them, and how to remain relevant for this emerging generation. Joining A...

Today we want to talk about a word or phrase that made its way to the Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Year in 2020 which is: Cancel Culture. As social researchers, each week are deploying surveys and analysing demographic and community data. We gather content from focus groups and in-depth interviews and draw out the trends. That is social research. While analysing these data sets gives us s...

A few weeks ago, the latest Census results were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. While there were a lot of interesting findings, one big generational shift has occurred in the last five years: the Millennials have overtaken the Baby Boomers to become the largest generation.  So, in today’s episode, Ashley Fell sits down with Social Researcher, Geoff Brailey to talk about this...

Welcome back to another season of The Future Report! Over the last few weeks, Mark McCrindle and Ashley Fell have been out travelling and sharing insights at conferences in Europe and the United States, which after two years of closed borders has been a bit of a treat! In today’s episode, our host, Ashley Fell sits down with social researcher, Mark McCrindle to discuss international conferences an...

Once every five years in Australia, we have the night that stops the nation, the census night. The Australian Bureau of Statistics then works busily away and analyses and compiles the data for almost a year and then releases it to the nation. For us, self-professed data nerds at McCrindle, the release day feels like our Christmas’ have all come at once, with a brand new data snapshot of the nation...

The education sector is at the centre of many different trends. From changing generations of students and teachers to adapting the curriculum to suit the future of work to respond to changes brought about by the pandemic, to focusing on teacher and student wellbeing and collecting data and knowing what to do with it. Clearly, there is a lot on the plate for those working in the sector! Therefore,...

Have you ever thought about whether you are an ‘anywhere’ or ‘somewhere’ type of person? If you are an ‘anywhere’ type of person, it is likely that you can find home, community, or work, anywhere. On the other hand, if you are a ‘somewhere’ person, it is likely that you have strong connections to a particular place. As people continue to move and relocate, the idea of how we define our identity, a...

At McCrindle, we love to talk about the generations. Today’s high school students and those in their early twenties belong to Generation Z, who were born between the years 1995 and 2009. If you parent, lead or engage with this generation in any context, you will know that they are quite different from those who have gone before. The questions on many people’s mind is, how do we best care for this...

If you are old enough to remember dial-up, when you had to wait for the internet to connect and when the world wasn’t in our pockets, it’s a pretty stark contrast to the world shaping children today. In the last two decades, technology has advanced at lightning speed, and it can be challenging to keep up for all of us – no matter what generation we are a part of. Especially since something we were...

Analysing baby names paints a fascinating picture of the era that we live in. The Builders generation (born before 1945) chose traditional names such as Peter, Paul, John, Karen, Jennifer, or Sharon for their children. In the 1980s, the Baby Boomers began drawing on baby name books for inspiration and trends. Meanwhile, today’s parents, Generation Y (also known as the Millennials), are not only ch...