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Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional",[1][2] is a term coined in the early 1980s for a youngprofessional person workingin a city.[3] The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neutraldemographic label, but by the mid-to-late 1980s, when a "yuppie backlash" developed due to concerns over issues such asgentrification, some writers began using the term pejoratively.
Something is occurring in Chicago ... Some 20,000 new dwelling units have been built within two miles of the Loop over the past ten years to accommodate the rising tide of "Yuppies"—young urban professionals rebelling against the stodgy suburban lifestyles of their parents. The Yuppies seek neither comfort nor security, but stimulation, and they can find that only in the densest sections of the city.
The first printed appearance of the word was in a May 1980Chicago magazine article byDan Rottenberg. Rottenberg reported in 2015 that he did not invent the term, he had heard other people using it, and at the time he understood it as a rather neutral demographic term. Nonetheless, his article did note the issues ofsocioeconomic displacement which might occur as a result of the rise of thisinner-city population cohort.[5]
The term gained currency in theUnited States in March 1983 when syndicated newspaper columnistBob Greene published a story about a business networking group founded in 1982 by the former radical leaderJerry Rubin, formerly of theYouth International Party (whose members were called "yippies"); Greene said he had heard people at the networking group (which met atStudio 54 to soft classical music) joke that Rubin had "gone from being a yippie to being a yuppie". The headline of Greene's story was "From Yippie to Yuppie".[6][7][8]East Bay Express humoristAlice Kahn elaborated on the concept in a satirical piece published in June 1983, further popularizing the term.[9][10]
The proliferation of the word was affected by the publication ofThe Yuppie Handbook in January 1983 (atongue-in-cheek take onThe Official Preppy Handbook[11]), followed by SenatorGary Hart's 1984 candidacy as a "yuppie candidate" for President of the United States.[12] The term was then used to describe a political demographic group ofsocially liberal butfiscally conservative voters favoring his candidacy.[13]Newsweek magazine declared 1984 "The Year of the Yuppie", characterizing the salary range, occupations, and politics of "yuppies" as "demographically hazy".[12] The alternative acronymyumpie, foryoung upwardly mobile professional, was also current in the 1980s but failed to catch on.[14]
In a 1985 issue ofThe Wall Street Journal, Theressa Kersten atSRI International described a "yuppie backlash" by people who fit the demographic profile yet express resentment of the label: "You're talking about a class of people who put off having families so they can make payments on theSAABs ... To be a Yuppie is to be a loathsome undesirable creature". Leo Shapiro, amarket researcher in Chicago, responded, "Stereotyping always winds up being derogatory. It doesn't matter whether you are trying to advertise to farmers,Hispanics or Yuppies, no one likes to be neatly lumped into some group."[12]
In 1990, rock artistTom Petty used the term in the song "Yer So Bad", in the line "My sister got lucky, married a yuppie".[15]
The word lost most of its political connotations and, particularly after the1987 stock market crash, gained the negative socio-economic connotations that it sports today. On April 8, 1991,Time magazine proclaimed the death of the "yuppie" in a mockobituary.[16]In 1989, MTV hosted theForeclosure on a Yuppie contest to celebrate the end of the 1980s.[17]
The term experienced a resurgence in usage during the 2000s and 2010s. In October 2000,David Brooks remarked in aWeekly Standard article thatBenjamin Franklin – due to his extreme wealth, cosmopolitanism, and adventurous social life – is "Our Founding Yuppie".[18] A recent article inDetails proclaimed "The Return of the Yuppie", stating that "the yuppie of 1986 and the yuppie of 2006 are so similar as to be indistinguishable" and that "the yup" is "a shape-shifter... he finds ways to reenter the American psyche."[19] Despite the2008 financial crisis, in 2010, political commentatorVictor Davis Hanson wrote inNational Review very critically of "yuppies". However, following the2020 stock market crash and the ongoingCOVID-19 recession they are believed to be gone once more.[20]
Following the inauguration ofDonald Trump in 2025,UnHerd explored the rise of Yuppiefuturism, an ideology that fused Yuppie aesthetics withMAGA politics and Silicon Valley techno-utopianism.[21]
"Yuppie" was in common use in Britain from the early 1980s onward (thepremiership of Margaret Thatcher) and by 1987 had spawned subsidiary terms used in newspapers such as "yuppiedom", "yuppification", "yuppify" and "yuppie-bashing".[22]
A September 2010 article inThe Standard described the items on a typical Hong Kong resident's "yuppie wish list" based on a survey of 28- to 35-year-olds. About 58% wanted to own their own home, 40% wanted toprofessionally invest, and 28% wanted to become a boss.[23] A September 2010 article inThe New York Times defined as a hallmark of Russian "yuppie life" the adoption ofyoga and other elements ofIndian culture such as theirclothes,food, and furniture.[24]
In the 1987 crime drama filmWall Street,Michael Douglas andCharlie Sheen both portray yuppies.
In the 1988 filmBright Lights, Big City,Michael J. Fox as Jamie plays a typical yuppie.
In the 2000 American horror filmAmerican Psycho, the protagonistPatrick Bateman along with his work colleagues are all portrayed as yuppies.[25]
In the 2013Martin Scorsese filmThe Wolf of Wall Street,Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of a yuppie.
The people don't get much wackier than in 'Yer So Bad,' which pretty forcefully conveyed the band's disdain for yuppies.
The dictionary definition ofyuppie at Wiktionary