• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 12, 2005

President Bush’s campaign for social security reform has moved the debate to center stage. There is evidence that young adults are taking more of an interest than ever before. According to Hitwise, young adults are the fastest growing audience segment to the official government Web site for the Social Security Administration.

The share of young adults age 18-24 to the site increased 104 percent when comparing the four weeks ending March 5, 2005 versus the same week a year-ago. The second fastest growing segment to the Social Security Administration’s Web site is 25-34 year-olds. Their share of audience increased 59 percent (four weeks ending March 5, 2005 versus four weeks ending  March 6, 2004).

Bill Tancer, vice president of research, Hitwise, says “The Social Security Administration’s Web site historically has appealed to seniors, but now young adults age 18 to 34 comprise a full 31 percent of the site’s total audience.”

According to Hitwise Search Intelligence, “social security reform” is among the fastest growing search terms. While the level of searches for “social security reform” were below the Hitwise reporting threshold in the first half of 2004, the term had a significant debut during the politically-charged week of October 9, 2004, and subsequently skyrocketed 533 percent by the week ending February 19, 2005. The term “social security” has also become more popular lately; it jumped 40 percent over the same period.