The generation born between 1997 and 2012, commonly known as Gen Z, have been protesting around the world, gaining momentum as they topple governments and change their countries. In places like Nepal, Peru, Madagascar, and more, Gen Z have been risking their lives to stand up against their governments and the wealthy elite. 

Jason Brownlee is a professor at the University of Texas who researches and teaches the comparative politics of democracy. He stated that history’s youth are typically on the frontlines of movements for change and equality.

“Youth tends to be a fixture of protest movements and popular revolutions, from 1789 France to 1979 Iran and 1989 Eastern Europe,” Brownlee said. “If there was a major uprising anywhere in the world during the next decade, we would expect this cohort to be front and center.”

Part of this pattern may be due to youth psychology. Isaac Braman-Ray, the co-chair of LASA’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter, believes that they are more likely to lean left ideologically than older people, who tend conservative.

“People get more conservative as they age,” Braman-Ray said. “We’re gonna be the ones impacted by these decisions that people way older than us are making, and aren’t gonna impact them. So they’re making decisions that are potentially going to hurt us a lot, and aren’t gonna hurt them in the short term.”
In Sept. 2025, Gen Z succeeded in ousting the prime minister of Nepal, Sharma Oli. They elected a new interim prime minister, Sushila Karki, through the messaging app Discord. Nobel Prasad, a member of Gen Z in Nepal who attended these protests, stated that the key factors motivating the protests were inequality and corruption within the country.

“The building up factors–there were a lot–but some of them were corruption, seeing the rapid inequality where the richest people in Nepal were actually living a very different life from the rest, the 99% of the population,” Prasad said. “The richest people were able to go on vacation. They were in Europe, they were posting their designer bags, whereas the common person in Nepal didn’t even have proper roads.”

In Madagascar, Gen Z protests were triggered by outages and poverty around the country. In Peru, crime and corruption sparked outrage. Brownlee stated the wave of worldwide unrest all largely share common ground in their grievances.

“The protests have targeted a range of governments that had fallen out of favor with large portions of the public,” Brownlee said. “The protests appear fueled by concerns about leaders acting with impunity and not honoring their responsibility as public servants. Those issues could resonate with young people around the world, including in the Global North.”

Thousands of people have been injured in the protests around the world, and some have been killed. Violence was used by governments to try and silence their people, and also used by the people to try and make their voices heard, according to Prasad, who talked about his experience protesting and his emotions after the fact.

“My personal reaction after seeing everything that happened in my country: I was first of all very sad because of the deaths, and I was also very proud,” Prasad said. “I was very proud of my generation for standing up. I was in the front lines. It was crazy. I saw a bunch of people being shot. It was insane.”

In many other countries, people are continuing to fight for change, like in the US and Sudan. It is likely this phenomenon will not stop but only continue to grow with each generation.