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Millennial money statistics

We explore how the “next great generation” fares with their finances

15 Mar 2018

To help identify spending patterns and financial strategies, finder.com has put British millennials under a microscope to see how they deal with money matters. We’re sharing exclusive data from thousands of respondents gathered via our own surveys from the last year. The data sheds light on how this generation handles their finances and technology, from time spent on their phone to how they deal with energy bills and mobile data.

In this guide

Impulse shopping icon.
Date of survey: November 2017

Impulse Shopping

Impulse shopping is a dangerous habit that sees us buying things we don’t need or sometimes even really want – but who can resist when it’s on sale? (Especially on Black Friday!) Millennials are guilty for frequently indulging in an impulse buy or two.

  • 95.1% of millennials admit to impulse shopping.
  • With nearly 1 in 5 (18.7%) admitting to impulse shopping every day.
  • The average spend on an impulse shop online is £38.33.
  • 81.3% said they shop online at least once a month.
  • 49% reported feeling content after an impulse purchase.
  • But, 33.5% reported experiencing regret after an impulse purchase.
Money Transfer Icon
Date of survey: August 2017

Money transfers

Money makes the world go round, and millennials are sending money all around the world. But when transferring money overseas, who do they send it to and why?

  • 58.8% of millennials transfer money overseas.
  • Nearly half of those (48%) look out for needs of the recipient.
  • The most common recipient was their families (50.7%).
  • The main reason for sending money was for a vacation, a wedding, an emergency or to their own overseas accounts.
TV Streaming icon.
Date of survey: August 2017

TV Streaming

The streaming revolution has changed the way we consume TV and film forever – allowing us to binge an entire series of a TV show while in the comfort of our own bed. How did we ever get by without Netflix?

  • 70.8% of millennials are subscribed to streaming services.
  • 11.8% are subscribed to 3 or more services.
  • Netflix is the most popular streaming service, with 69.4% of millennials owning a subscription.
  • 41.3% watch via Amazon Prime.
  • The average monthly spend on TV streaming services by millennials is £20.28 per month.
Side Hustles icon.
Date of survey: September 2017

Side hustles

Side hustles are jobs you do on the side of your normal 9-5 job to make some extra cash. But, they often go undeclared. Trying to fuel a lavish lifestyle is expensive, it’s no wonder the side hustle economy is flourishing, with millennials selling their skills and services to fund their lifestyle but keeping it all under wraps (tut tut).

  • 27.72% of millennials admitted to making money off the books.
  • The most popular job is Freelance Creative Work (19.63%).
  • Cleaning services came in a close second (17.76%).
  • Driving services and freelance advice followed closely behind (11.21% respectively).
  • Average ‘off-the-books income’ by millennials was £5,502.54.
Mobile Phones obsession icon.
Date of survey: August 2016

Mobile Phone Obsession

We all love our phones, they organise our lives and it can be a hard job to leave home without one! But millennials seem to love them maybe a little bit too much…

  • Over half (61%) of millennials admit to using their phone on the toilet.
  • 7.7% admitted to using them at a funeral ceremony.
  • 77.4% of millennials say they check their phone after dark.
  • 21.3% check their phones for work emails.
Data Streaming icon.
Date of survey: September 2017

Data Streaming

With mobile phones an everyday necessity, knowing your 3G from your Wifi can save you a shed load of cash. But how clued up are millennials when it comes to their mobile data and phone contracts?

  • 74.6% of millennials know the difference between wifi and mobile data.
  • 12.4% of millennials have no idea, while the other 13% just weren’t sure as to the difference between wifi and mobile data.
  • 45.1% keep to their phone contract beyond 12 months.
  • While, 19.7% switch as soon as their contracts are up.
  • 6% of millennials remain on an expired contract for more than 5 years.
  • Millennials are the most cautious of roaming fees, with nearly half preparing in advance when travelling abroad (46.1%).
Energy Costs icon.
Date of survey: September 2017

Energy Costs

In the depths of winter do you crank up the heating or whack on another jumper? We looked into how millennials feel about energy costs and if they are proactive in switching providers.

  • 50.5% of millennials say they have no power over energy costs.
  • 49.5% of millennials say they have at least some control over energy costs.
  • 47.7% say they are in the know when it comes to energy tariffs.
  • While 52.3% say they don’t know their options or simply don’t understand their energy tariff options.
  • 32% have changed energy providers in the last 12 months.
  • 11.9% last switched energy providers over 10 years ago.
Game of Thrones Piracy (Jon Snow) icon.
Date of survey: August 2017

Game of Thrones piracy

You could pay for HBO like an upstanding citizen, or you could find an illegal stream somewhere in the corner of the deep dark web. I doubt Jon Snow would approve of your treachery.

  • 7.7 million Brits illegally watched the Game of Thrones Season Finale in August 2017.
  • 19.1% of millennials said recent arrests have deterred them from pirating.
Holiday Spending
Date of survey: December 2017

Holiday spending

Who’s the most generous in the holiday season? We looked at how much millennials planned on spending – and how they intended to fund it.

  • Millennials planned on spending on average £416.73 last holiday season.
  • Most millennials planned to fuel their spending with their savings – 87.3%.
  • 55.5% of millennials intended to use a credit card.
  • 26.9% planned to borrow money from friends or family.
  • 33.8% planned to take out a short term loan.
  • While 31.4% planned to take out a personal loan.
  • 38.6% are relied solely on their savings.
  • 7.9% are relied solely on credit cards.
Christmas Confessions
Date of survey: October 2017

Christmas confessions

Christmas is a wonderful time of year, for spending time with family and getting that present you always wanted. But sometimes the gifts aren’t quite what you were after. We looked at what millennials really do with those gifts they didn’t really want.

  • 71.06% of millennials have received a gift they don’t like.
  • On average millennials receive 4 unwanted gifts.
  • Those 4 gifts accumulate a total average cost of £93.84.
  • 22.86% of millennials keep them anyway.
  • 15.32% sell them.
  • 11.69% donate the unwanted gifts.
  • 8.31% exchange them
  • While a bold 9.61% give them back.
  • 21.86% of millennials admit to have knowingly gifted someone an unwanted present.
Drunk shopping icon.
Date of survey: February 2018

Drunk Shopping

Purchasing something while under the influence may seem a good idea at the time, but could leave you with a sore head (and bank account) the morning after. We looked into how much millennials are spending when they are drunk and what they are buying.

  • 59.29% of millennials admit to drunk shopping.
  • With the average spend a whopping £182.39.
  • 15.06% have bought cigarettes while under the influence.
  • 1 in 3 (33.41%) admit to buying food while drunk.
  • 44.47% of millennials admitted to having a shot every week.
  • Millennials spend an average of £5.08 on spirits, £4.25 on cocktails and £3.62 on ciders per drinker per week.
Valentine's day spending icon.
Date of survey: February 2018

Valentine’s Day Spending

More than 22 million Brits were lined up to spend money on their loved ones last Valentine’s Day – but how much are millennials planning to spend – and on who?

  • 68.8% of millennials planned to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
  • 16.2% of those planned to do so without spending.
  • The average spend by a millennial for Valentine’s Day was £25.75.
  • 8.7% of millennials planned to spend money on their cat or dog.
  • While 3.5% of millennials planned to treat themselves.
  • A huge 52.5% of millennials who received gifts did not like them.
  • 45.4% said they rarely, if ever receive a gift on Valentine’s Day.
  • 25.6% planned to profess their love late and celebrate Valentine’s Day after the 14th Feb.
Money Transfer Icon
Date of survey: June 2018

Lending money to friends and family

Brits loaned £16.6 billion to friends and family last year, but over half of these people (55%) don’t think they will get all of their money back. However, what are the millennials lending behaviours?

  • 64.2% of millennials have lent money (£10 or more) to a friend or family member at least once over the past year.
  • On average, millennials lend to friends or family 2.62 times a year. This is higher than both Gen X (1.87) and Baby boomers (1.49).
  • Around a third of millennials lent money to friends or family 4 times or more.
  • Millennials lent a total of £300 on family and friends a year on average.
  • This is the lowest of all the generations, with the highest lenders being Baby boomers with £1,500. Over £1000 more a year than millennials on average.
Impulse shopping icon.
Date of survey: June 2018

Self checkout underspending

Brits stole approximately £320 million from self checkouts last year, but how (dis)honest are millennials at self checkouts?

  • 39% of millennials made at least one dishonest checkout mistake in the past year.
  • This is over 4x more than Baby boomers (9%) and almost 2x more than Gen X (21%).
  • 8.7% have underspent on goods at self checkouts by more than £51 over the last year.
Money Transfer Icon
Date of survey: June 2018

Travel payment methods

Brits spent a total of 1.9 billion on travel money fees in 2017, with the average fees per trip being £39 for debit/credit card, £22 for using an exchange bureau and £8 for prepaid cards. We looked into millennials spending habits abroad:

  • 19% of millennials used prepaid cards abroad, more than any other generation, making them the savviest age group when it comes to travel money.
  • 51% of millennials used exchange bureaus, less than Gen X (56%) and Baby Boomers (67%).
  • 43% debit/credit cards abroad, less than other generations (48%).
Side Hustles icon.
Date of survey: June 2018

Holiday planning

Over half (58%) of Brits plan their next holiday during work hours. Millennials are the most guilty generation in holiday planning at work.

  • 74% of millennials spend time at work planning their holiday every week. This is more than any other generation, with 57% of Gen X and 40% of Baby boomers spending time on holiday planning at work.
  • On average, the amount of time spent holiday planning for a millennial at work was 36 minutes . This was more than Gen X (29 minutes) and the Baby boomers (21 minutes).
  • 16% of the millennials spent longer than an hour planning holidays at work each week.

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4 Responses

  1. Default Gravatar
    ElenaMarch 21, 2019

    Can you please share research methodology and sample size. And have you got more info on travel, how can I get it, if you got it? Working on travel needs of millenials in UK project. Thank you

    Reply
    • finder Customer Care
      nikkiangcoMarch 22, 2019Staff

      Hi Elena,

      Thanks for your inquiry. It looks like you have a very interesting project at hand. I’d be happy to help you with this however we don’t have information on research methodology and sample size. If you need more information on travel, you can go to this page. Hope this helps!

      Best,
      Nikki

      Reply
  2. Default Gravatar
    helenJuly 3, 2018

    I’d like to write an article based on the research based on this article. We will show the original source. Can you please let me know if this is okay. It’s for the East Sussex Credit Union.
    Many thanks

    Reply
    • finder Customer Care
      NoiJuly 3, 2018Staff

      Hi Helen, thanks for your query. We’re more than happy for people to use research, as long as they include a link back to the page.

      Thanks,
      Noi

      Reply
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