The “Youth Pulse 2026” report draws on unique insights from nearly 4,600 young people from 489 diverse locations, including capital cities, rural areas, islands and refugee camps – spanning 144 countries and territories. The target population is aged 18-30. This breadth of perspectives makes it one of the most diverse datasets available on the global youth agenda. (See Appendix 2 for more information on demography.) Grounded in both quantitative and qualitative data, this report aims to achieve two objectives: i) capture the perspectives of young people as they navigate the world; ii) assess the scale and outcomes of their collective action. A keyword frequency mapping analysis was used to identify patterns in the open-text responses, helping to surface recurring concepts and shared vocabulary. Beyond individual terms, a semantic clustering process was used to group related keywords based on their contextual co-occurrence and semantic proximity in responses, using a topic modelling approach (TF-IDF vectorization combined with Non-negative Matrix Factorization, NMF) to detect recurring semantic patterns. For example, terms such as education, access and technology often appeared together, while words like listening, collaboration and respect clustered around human- centric values. Data sources 1. Annual survey The survey was made available in four languages and received 4,574 responses from young people across 489 locations in 144 countries and territories. Three tailored versions of the survey were deployed from July-August 2025: –The youth outlook survey covering views on political, social, economic, technological and environmental issues, as well as demographic information. –A survey with the leadership section including additional questions for “Curators” who are elected Hub leaders, to gather feedback on their leadership journey. –Survey with impact section for “Impact Officers”, who are responsible for gathering and reporting impact; focused on community-level impact, collecting data on the number and type of youth-led initiatives executed, beneficiaries reached and systemic outcomes achieved. 2. Internal reporting Additional data was sourced from the Global Shapers Community’s internal reporting systems, covering the period from July 2024 to June 2025, to include: –Quantitative indicators such as impact areas, number of beneficiaries reached and systemic outcomes. –Qualitative narratives detailing project descriptions, Hub activities and partnerships. –Demographic information (e.g. age and gender), and data on members’ participation in other Forum initiatives, providing a comprehensive view of community activity and impact. Robustness of findings This report is based on a robust survey that captured the views and experiences of 40% (4,574 out of 11,400) of the members of the Global Shapers Community, a large and diverse segment representing young people worldwide. The strong participation rate ensures that the findings reflect a globally distributed and demographically diverse sample of youth – spanning regions, languages and socio-economic contexts. To further strengthen the reliability of the results, the data underwent careful internal checks and follow-up reviews, helping to ensure that the information presented is both consistent and trustworthy.A.1 MethodologyAppendices Youth Pulse 2026: Insights from the next generation for a changing world 50