Change across generations

In Year 1, researchers asked independent samples whether a town should preserve an old factory rather than replace it with housing. Support for preservation was 60% among residents aged 20-29 and 40% among residents aged 40-49. Twenty years later, in Year 21, new independent samples answered the identical question about the still-standing factory. Support was 65% among residents aged 20-29 and 55% among residents aged 40-49. Samples were large and selected to represent current residents in each stated age group. Individual respondents were not followed. People could enter or leave the town between surveys. A columnist wrote: “People become less attached to industrial heritage as they grow older: the first young generation went from 60% to 55%.” Another wrote: “Every age group is becoming more attached: both rows rose.” A historian noted that, between the surveys, the town had both opened a heritage centre and experienced an increase in housing demand. She warned that an age group is not automatically a generation, and a generation is not a fixed panel of residents.