HUMBUG
Missing a Trick?
Babies are booming…
Population
There are over 11 million people aged 65 and in ten years' time this will have increased to 13 million people, 22% of the population.
Wealth
Individual wealth peaks with 60-64 year-olds, who have on average 9 times that of 30-34 age group. Less than 3% of 65+ year-olds find it quite or very difficult to manage financially.
Politics
The older people are, the more likely they are to trust the national government but that peaks at 32% for 65-74 year-olds! So unsurprisingly not a great deal of trust all round.
Work
Older workers win hands down in terms of raw economic value. Those aged between 60 and 74 tended to earn 10% to 20% more than their younger counterparts.
Faith
In 2021, for the first time in England and Wales, less than half of the population described themselves as ‘Christian’.
From 1980 to 2015 church attendance fell by 50% across the board.
Home
Homes are increasingly places of work and family care. Appropriately designed housing, that adapts to people’s changing needs as they age, has a number of benefits, including reducing demand on health and care services and enabling individuals to work more flexibly and for longer.
Health
Older men are less concerned about the face they show than the bodies they own.
60% of 55-74 year-olds take part in at least 150 minutes of sport and physical activities a week.
Play
Clearly over 55's like gardening more than any other age group. Travel is a much higher priority because older folk prefer to buy experiences not material possessions because they can and it makes them feel good.
Climate change
Those aged 70 years and over were less likely to report that they were very worried than some younger age groups about the impact of climate change. Which is a tad selfish!
Media
Those aged 55+, or in the DE socio-economic group remain less likely to go online.17% of 55-64's do not use the internet.
Over 65s like reading newspapers.
Around 45 % of those aged 55+ don't feel that GDPR makes them any more confident about how brands treat their personal information.
55% of those over 50 feel businesses lack interest in their needs, despite having £100 billion to spend.
Wellbeing
People aged 65+ are more likely than younger people to define wellbeing as being able to continue to do the things they had always done.
37% of 60-64 olds rated their happiness yesterday as very high vs 27% for those aged 45-49.
Over a 1/3 of those aged 65-69 rate their overall satisfaction with life as high vs a 1/5th of those aged 40-44
Those aged over 64 half as likely as younger age groups to be in an unhappy relationship.
Sources for much of this are of course ONS (i.e. Quality of Life in the UK November 2022/Census 2021/Omnibus) along with others such as BBC Worklife European Social Survey, Faith Survey Uk-christianity, Higgs and Gilleard, Statista.com and Higgs and Gilleard.