More expensive houses, fewer jobs and less help from the government.

That’s the bleak future facing Australians under 24.

The size of our youngest generation will grow by half over the next four decades, a new report from the Foundation for Young Australians finds.

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But they’re unlikely to have it better than their parents.

Already almost a third of young people are unemployed or under-employed and those who went to university are saddled with $24,000 more debt than their parents.

To buy a first home they have to take out loans three times larger than did their parents.

The proportion working part-time only is three times what it was 30 years ago.

By 2050 it’s predicted the amount of government spending that directly benefits young people will drop from 46 per cent of total expenditure to 37 per cent.

At the same time, spending on older Australians will increase.

Young Australians are well aware of the challenges ahead – fewer than one in four believe their life experience will be better than that of their parents.

Foundation chief executive Jan Owen says young Australians are the country’s social and economic lifeblood.

“We must ensure that we are investing in them today to secure Australia’s tomorrow,” she said ahead of the report’s launch.

The longer the needs of young people are ignored, their potential discounted, and their talents and energy wasted, the “bigger and uglier” the future economic problems of our nation are going to get.

The Renewing Australia’s Promise report will be launched in Melbourne on Monday.