Gen Z living out of parents’ pockets:

They'll volunteer their time to help the needy but they don't trust other people.

They'll say no to cigarettes but they don't mind a drink or three - and although they treasure their independence, they're happy to let Mum and Dad foot their bills.

Young people born in the early- to mid-1990s will make up 13.2 per cent of Australia's population by 2015, according to senior IBISWorld analyst Naren Sivasailam.

Most young Aussies are city dwellers, and nearly half (48.1 per cent) of 20- to 24-year-olds were still living with their parents last year, compared with 45.2 per cent a decade earlier.

Even young people who had left the nest were still reliant on financial support from their families, Mr Sivasailam said.

"This comes off a rather spectacular boom time for Australia before the GFC," he said.

"We had more families with double incomes as more women entered the workforce, and generally we have become more wealthy as a country."

He said the global financial turmoil of 2008-9 had encouraged families to cut spending - but not on their children.

"The number of young people receiving financial assistance from their parents went up from 57 per cent to 64 per cent in the four years to 2010," Mr Sivasailam said.

"That points to the fact that parents were happy to cut down on other purchases - maybe they skipped the new car, but kept helping their children pay bills."

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show that among young adults who receive financial assistance from their parents, about 45 per cent get help paying their rent and just over 49 per cent get help paying bills.

The ABS figures also show 27.1 per cent of young adults are involved in volunteer work.

Yet while they spend their working days helping others, they're less trusting than the rest of us - 49.7 per cent think people can be trusted, compared to 54.1 per cent of the general population.

"I think they are trusting politicians and marketing messages less, rather than people," Mr Sivasailam said.

"They are more empathetic, perhaps, but more cynical at the same time."

They are also less likely to join a union - membership is at 4.1 per cent.

Fewer young people are smoking but more are drinking alcohol, in line with the rest of the country, he said.

IBISWorld figures show the average Australian will consume 11.02 litres of alcohol in 2016, up from 10.8 in 2011 to 2012.