How does consumer confidence vary by age group?

Consumer confidence by age in the UK doesn’t move in a neat line.

The latest Konfidant optimism read shows a sharper pattern. Optimism peaks among 25–34s, then drops hard from 35 onwards. The most striking gap doesn’t sit between Gen Z and Boomers. It sits inside what many brands still call “Millennials”.

That matters.

Brands often plan by broad generation: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers. It feels tidy. It rarely helps enough. A 28-year-old, a 42-year-old and a 68-year-old may all face the same national economy, but they read it through very different levels of responsibility, pressure, experience and future expectation.

Age tells you the context. Movement tells you the signal.

What the data shows

In the latest Konfidant optimism data, 25–34s show the highest level of optimism at around 46%. 18–24s follow at 38%. Then the pattern changes sharply.

Optimism falls to around 29% among 35–44s, 14% among 45–54s, 7% among 55–64s and 8% among those aged 65+.

That gives us three important reads.

First, optimism clusters around younger adulthood. Second, confidence drops sharply from 35 onwards. Third, older adults do not follow a perfectly smooth downward curve – 65+ sits slightly above 55–64.

The headline: consumer confidence varies sharply by age, but age alone doesn’t explain it.

The curve matters more than the ranking

The chart doesn’t simply say “young people feel confident and older people don’t”.

That read would miss the point.

The curve shows a peak in the 25–34 age band, then a cliff edge through midlife. It also shows how misleading broad generational labels can be. Younger Millennials sit at the top of the chart. Older Millennials sit much lower.

That’s a 17-point gap inside one supposed generation.

For segmentation teams and comms planners, that should ring an alarm. Planning for “Millennials” as one audience can hide more than it reveals.

A 30-year-old may still feel some future possibility, even with stretched finances. A 40-year-old may carry more fixed commitments, less room for mistakes and a sharper sense of household risk. Same generation label. Different emotional climate.

Why younger adults can look more optimistic

Higher optimism among 18–34s doesn’t mean younger adults have an easy financial life.

Many face high rents, insecure work, student debt, slow savings growth and difficult housing prospects. Their optimism may come less from comfort and more from future horizon.

Life can still feel open. Identity can still feel in motion. Change can still feel possible. New brands, habits, products and categories may feel easier to adopt because fewer routines have hardened.

That gives brands an opportunity – but not a licence to overclaim.

High optimism doesn’t equal high spending power. For younger audiences, confidence may show up as openness, trial, switching and appetite for progress. It may not show up as big-ticket commitment.

The right brand tone here often leans into momentum, identity, possibility and small steps forward.

Why midlife confidence gets squeezed

The drop from 25–34 to 35–44 looks commercially important.

Midlife carries more load. Children, mortgages, rent, career pressure, ageing parents, household bills and long-term commitments often stack up at the same time.

That changes how confidence works.

A midlife consumer may still spend, but the spend needs to justify itself harder. The emotional bar rises. The product needs proof. The campaign needs the right tone. The value story needs to feel credible, not cosmetic.

This group may not reject desire. They may need permission to act on it.

For brands, that means reducing risk. Make value clear. Make decisions easier. Build control. Show durability. Avoid making people feel foolish for wanting something better when life already feels expensive.

Why older confidence reads differently

Older consumers may show lower optimism without becoming commercially irrelevant.

That distinction matters.

Older people often read confidence through a wider lens. They may follow the news more closely. They may have lived through more economic cycles. They may understand the implications of inflation, interest rates, public services, taxation, pensions and health pressures more sharply.

That can pull optimism down even when some older households hold more financial security than younger ones.

For 55–64s, the low point may reflect a particularly exposed life stage: close enough to retirement to worry about it, not always close enough to feel protected by it. Redundancy risk, pension adequacy, health worries and family support can all weigh heavily.

The slight uptick among 65+ may suggest something different. Retirement may have become a known quantity. The uncertainty may not disappear, but some of the transition risk has passed.

This should stop brands making lazy assumptions. Older audiences may need trust, clarity, respect and reliability. They don’t need to be treated as disengaged.

The same number means different things by age

This is the most important point for marketers.

A confidence or optimism score doesn’t carry the same meaning at every age.

For a 25-year-old, optimism may mean “I can still shape what happens next.”
For a 42-year-old, it may mean “I can keep everything moving without something breaking.”
For a 58-year-old, it may mean “I can get through this without losing ground.”
For a 70-year-old, it may mean “I can rely on what I already have.”

Same metric. Different emotional job.

That’s why absolute comparisons only take you so far.

The more useful question isn’t only: which age group feels most confident today?

It’s: how is each age group moving against its own baseline?

Track movement within each age band

A static ranking tells you who looks more confident now. Tracking each age group over time tells you where demand may move next.

If 25–34s remain the most optimistic but start falling quickly, that may warn brands relying on trial, switching, upgrades or new product adoption.

If 35–44s move up, that may signal more room for family spending, home improvement, eating out, holidays or premium trade-up.

If 55–64s rise from a low base, that may not look dramatic in the headline score, but it could mark a meaningful change in willingness to plan, spend or commit.

This is where weekly segmented data matters.

The absolute gap tells you who feels different. The movement tells you what’s changing.

What this means for comms and segmentation

Treating “the consumer” as one market will blur the signal. Treating age as the whole answer will do the same.

Brands need to know both the age context and the emotional driver behind it.

Younger audiences may respond more to possibility, identity, progress and freedom. Midlife audiences may need control, proof, value and permission. Older audiences may need clarity, trust, service reliability and respect.

The same campaign can land differently by age.

A “treat yourself” message may feel like joy at 30 and pressure at 58. A premium message may feel aspirational for one group and reckless for another. A value message may feel smart for one audience and patronising for another.

Segmentation works when it captures those differences. It fails when it turns age into stereotype.

Where Konfidant fits

Konfidant tracks how the UK thinks, feels and behaves every week, including confidence and optimism by age group.

That means brands can see more than a single national mood score. They can see which age groups are moving, which are stuck, and what sits underneath the movement.

Are younger consumers still optimistic, or starting to wobble?
Are midlife households becoming more exposed?
Are older groups responding to wider news, public services or cost pressure?
Where does confidence turn into spending, delay, switching or saving?
Which audiences need Control, Desire, Belonging, Immersion or Freedom?

That gives segmentation teams and comms planners a better read.

Not just who feels confident.

What confidence means for that group, and what they may do next.

The bottom line

Consumer confidence varies by age because different age groups have different relationships with the future.

Younger adults may carry more possibility. Midlife consumers often carry more responsibility. Older consumers may read the same economy through experience, news and a sharper sense of risk.

So don’t compare age groups too literally.

Age tells you the starting context. Movement within age tells you the commercial signal.

Brands that track both will plan better, speak more accurately and spot demand before it fully shows up in the sales data.