Teens aren’t getting their driver’s licenses – and the experts are completely wrong about why

Let's bust some common myths about Gen Z teens and why they do what they do

From teens cruising in Dazed and Confused to the pink Volkswagen in Pretty in Pink, the teen years of Boomers and Gen X’ers often revolved around cars. The car was hanging with your friends, it was making out with your date, it was pure unadulterated freedom. The car was the avenue to adulthood.

These days, though, the car as a rite of adolescent passage has started to fade. Fewer Gen Z’ers get their driver’s license in high school compared to previous generations – 63% had a driver’s license by the spring of their senior year of high school in 2023, compared to 82% as recently as 2005 when teens were Millennials. Nearly 90% of Boomers and Gen X’ers had their license by the end of high school.

A recent article on CNN.com delved into the decline in teens getting their driver’s license. Although I’m always happy to see articles about generational shifts, especially among teens, the article got almost everything wrong about why teens are now less likely to drive. If we don’t understand that, we don’t understand one of the key generational changes to the teen years – and understanding those shifts is one of the best chances we have for helping kids develop the independence they need to prepare them for adulthood.

So why are teens now less likely to drive? We can start by ruling out some possibilities, including most of those mentioned in the CNN article.

1. Teens are using rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft instead of driving. That’s extremely unlikely: You can't take an Uber until you're 18. Uber drivers can face penalties for picking up underage riders, and drivers will often cancel rides once they see they’re picking up at a school (I’ve had this happen to me twice after giving talks at schools – and that’s with my profile picture showing the 50-something person I am).

Not to mention: Taking Ubers is expensive – that’s not a cost most high school students and their families can afford for daily transportation.

We can also rule out this explanation with data. The decline in teens getting their licenses started long before Uber existed (2011), and the decline is similar in rural areas where rideshare apps are much less available (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Percent of U.S. 12^th graders who have a driver’s license, by location of high school. Source: Monitoring the Future. Note: Urban and suburban areas are those within a Metropolitan Statistical Area as defined by the U.S. Census; rural areas are those outside of MSAs.

2. Teens have more homework so don't have time to learn to drive. Wrong: Teens spend less time on homework now, not more. So clinical psychologist Lisa Damour, whom I otherwise admire, shouldn't be saying that teens "are doing so much more work than you and I ever did in high school." In fact, the opposite is true.

3. Teens are busy with more activities so they can get into college. Damour also mentioned this, but it doesn’t appear to be true. In analyses of national survey data for iGen, college-bound teens spent about the same amount of time on average on activities (clubs, sports, etc.) as teens did in the 1980s and 1990s. They also spent less time working for pay. Between that and the decline in homework time, teens now have more leisure time, not less.

Plus, the decline in driver's licenses appears among teens who plan to go to a four-year college and those who don't – in fact the decline is larger among those who don’t plan to go to a four-year college (see Figure 2 – back in the 1970s, getting a driver’s license didn’t differ by college plans, but then the lines diverge, especially in the last decade). Teens who aren’t planning on college at all — much less applying to the few competitive colleges where activities matter — show a bigger decline in driving.

Figure 2: Percent of U.S. 12^th graders who have a driver’s license, by college plans. Source: Monitoring the Future. Note: “Plan four-year college” includes those who say they are definitely attending a four-year college; “do not plan” includes those who say they definitely aren’t or probably aren’t.

4. It’s due to tough economic times. “Parents and caregivers who need to spend more time working to keep the family afloat don’t have time to give driving lessons,” the article notes. “’When we have an economic downturn, things kind of tighten up. People drive less. They travel in cars less,’” said Dr. Federico Vaca.

OK, so economic downturns = fewer teens getting their licenses, and economic upswings = more teens getting their licenses. But that’s not what happened. The U.S. economy and median incomes were improving between 2010 and 2019 – so more teens should have been getting their licenses -- but instead the decline continued.

Why did Dr. Vaca get this wrong? Probably because he was thinking in terms of individual-level factors impacting teens getting a license. It’s true that lower-income teens are less likely to get their licenses. But that’s a very different question than why fewer teens get their licenses now compared to previous decades. Economic cycles have gone up and down, but in the last 30 years the trend in teen driving consistently goes in just one direction -- down.

5. Teens are socializing more online. It’s true that in-person hangouts with friends are less common, replaced by gaming, texting, or social media – usually while at home. But that probably isn’t the only explanation. The decline in teens getting their licenses started in the 1990s before social media existed, continued during the 2000s when social media was in its infancy, and kept going as social media became popular. Online socializing may have contributed to the decline in teen driving, but it wasn’t the original cause.

6. Mental health issues keep teens from getting their licenses. It’s true that teen depression has increased, and it’s also true that depressed teens may not have the wherewithal to get a driver’s license. “Maybe just getting through school takes up so much of the time and energy that they have. Extra things such as getting driver’s license or doing things that may lead to more independence are really harder,” said Dr. Rhonda Boyd, a psychologist in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Very true, and with teen depression doubling since 2011, this explanation seems plausible at first blush.

Except the declines started well before 2011 – they began in the 2000s when teen mental health was actually improving.

Plus, if increases in depression were the primary reason for the decline, we shouldn’t see much change among teens who are not depressed. The setup of the survey doesn’t allow us to look at driving and depression, but we can look at driving and happiness. Teens who say they are happy are usually not depressed. But they are less likely to get their driver’s license in recent years – just like teens who are not happy (see Figure 3). So it doesn’t look like increased depression is the primary cause, because even non-depressed teens are less likely to drive.

Figure 3: Percent of U.S. 12^th graders who have a driver’s license, by happiness level. Source: Monitoring the Future. Note: Happy = “very happy” or “pretty happy.” Not happy = “not very happy.”

7. Teens are taking longer to grow up. It’s not just the driver’s license: Gen Z teens are also less likely to date, have a paid job, drink alcohol, and have sex than teens in previous generations. We’ve known about all of these trends for 8 years, but somehow trend pieces like the CNN article still miss that all adult activities have declined among teens, not just one.

Plus, as I showed in Generations, slowed development is not limited to teens. Young adults also take longer to get married, have children, and settle into careers, and middle-aged people look and feel younger than their parents or grandparents did at the same age. The entire developmental trajectory has slowed down, across the whole life course: People are taking longer to grow up and longer to grow old.

Thus, teens are delaying getting their driver’s licenses because they’re taking longer to grow up. That can be good, but it also has downsides. In many communities, getting a driver’s license is the key to two very important things: Getting together with friends in person and developing independence. No matter how they do it – bike, car, public transportation – getting places on their own is a great way for teens to become independent.

Teens who don’t gain experience with independence in high school may have trouble in college or in the workplace because they don’t have as much experience making decisions on their own in the real world.

How can you help your kid or teen develop independence? Check out the great organization Let Grow for ideas. Here are a few: Starting when they’re about 10, let them go into stores and buy things on their own without you. (Yes, it’s legal, and yes, they’ll be fine. They’re scared of doing it? Good! Once they do it they won’t be scared anymore!) Allow kids to walk or bike home from school or a friend’s house. And yes, do what you can to help them get their driver’s license – and use it to have their own adventures before they become adults.