Millennials who don't obtain a college degree are likely to earn much less than their parents, a new report has found.

Stanford University discovered that Americans born between 1980 and 2000 without a qualification at that level, end up working for a lower salary than previous generations and experience the worst struggles of them all.

Numerous professors and students at the private research university also noted in the June 6 report that those currently under 40 are more likely to die by suicide or drug overdose.

'Millennials are the first generation to experience in a full-throttled way the social and economic problems of our time,' professor of sociology and director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, David Grusky, said. 'We can think of them as canaries in the coalmine who reveal just how toxic those problems are.'

Millennials who don't obtain a college degree are likely to earn much less than their parents, a new report has found. Stanford report said they are more likely to die early from drugs or by suicide (file image)

'If you don't go to college you're likely to do worse than ever,' professor of sociology and director of the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, David Grusky, said (file image)

The wider report addresses underlying problems that stem from decades of inequality and job hunting with the effects of the Great Recession.

Issues range from education, health, employment and income, occupational segregation, debt and poverty rates, economic mobility, racial and gender identities, social connections, housing and incarceration trends.

While those who did obtain an undergraduate degree are likely to earn at least the same as Generation X and the Baby Boomers – on average $50,000 per year for 25-year-old men, which equates to slightly more when considering inflation – males the same age without the qualification earn 40 per cent less ($29,000).

Stanford sociologist Florencia Torche and doctoral sociology student Amy Johnson said it puts them behind the previous generation born between 1965 and 1980 by about $2,600 and the generation before that – born 1946 to 1964 - by $10,000.

Grusky said about the findings compared to a census from 1975 to 2018, 'If you don't go to college you're likely to do worse than ever.'

But pointed out enrolling to seal security in the future doesn't exactly amount to 'striking gold' for most people.

Under 40s are 'first to experience full-throttled social and economic problems', a Stanford professor said (file image)

While those who did obtain an undergraduate degree are likely to earn at least the same as Generation X and the Baby Boomers – on average $50,000 per year for 25-year-old men, which equates to slightly more when considering inflation – males the same age without the qualification earn 40 per cent less ($29,000)

One factor that comes into play is the millennials identifying as more open minded than other generations but deep down still clutching to stereotypes held by predecessors.

The report shows that millennials were more likely to identify as multiracial and to adopt unconventional gender identities.

While 20 per cent of millennials admit to having traditional views of gender roles, it's actually the same portion as previous generations.

Sociologist Aliya Saperstein and sociology doctoral student Sasha Shen Johfre noted that just as many young people nowadays – more of whom identify as multi-racial – compared to those born in the 15 years immediately before 1980, believe black people are lazier than white people.

'When it comes to their identities, millennials are a truly innovative generation that is forging new options,' Grusky commented. 'But when it comes to their attitudes about race and gender, they're just not as special.'

Racial tension in the US throughout the years has seemingly had an effect on getting on the property ladder.

Those born between 1980 and 2000 identify as more multiracial but many are just as likely to see black people as lazier than white people, like Gen X, showing how decades of problems have built up to affect job-seekers today (file image)

'When it comes to their attitudes about race and gender [millennials are] just not as special,' a report said

White adults between 20 and 29 years old were 2.7 times more likely to own a home than their black counterparts in 2010, according to US Census data from 1940 to 2017.

The ethnic gap is even worse than it was for those born between 1928 and 1945, also known as the Silent Generation, and is a sign of 'endemic racial, gender and economic problems' that have fallen on millennials, according to Grusky.

The combination of factors could be the reason more people are dying prematurely among millennials.

The number of people dying between the ages of 25 and 34 increased by 20 between between 2008 and 2016, despite the Stanford economist Mark Duggan and economics undergraduate Jackie Li finding that the number of people in their 20s without health insurance dropped during Barack Obama's two presidential terms.

The Affordable Care Act also helped close the racial gap in term those whose health was covered by insurance.

Soaring death figures in the age group was put down to increased suicide rates and drug-related mortalities.

Non-Hispanic white people, aged 20 to 34, rocketed by 27 percent. It was recorded at a 9 percent increase for black people and a 6 percent jump for Hispanics.

Grusky added to the Stanford News: 'If you understand the economic and social context within which millennials are growing up, it's natural to feel real empathy and hard, by contrast, to understand the anger that's often directed toward them.'