Consumer Optimism Tracker
The weekly read on UK consumer optimism –
how Britain feels, who feels it, why, and what brands should do next.
14 Aug 2026Published 30 Oct 2026Konfidant Week 32Read time: 2 min
UK Consumer Optimism at +28 as the holidays are spent closer to home
More of us are skipping the big trip this year as sunshine is at home - good for our wallets but could be trouble for our minds.
Net optimism, four-week rolling · 20 Aug 2021 to 14 Aug 2026
Four-week headline +28 · no change on last year
Latest weekly signal +31 · 2 points higher than last year
Four-week headline +28
No change on last year
What's changing
Holidays | Fun at home – big trips replaced by sun-filled days out |
Spending | Sure things – guaranteed memories and free sun wins |
Families | No holiday, no escape – 3 weeks left and patience thins |
Finances | Divide widens – no slack means more Klarna |
Back to school | Essentials only – coats can wait |
Exams | Cheering over the fear – results matter more |
No holidays – comes with good and bad
Summer has been spent close to home – only 11% of us have been on holiday, down 2 points below average. This doesn’t mean that we’re skipping out on fun – we’re skipping the expensive holidays in favour of lower-cost fun days outs, ready-made by the sunshine and without the heavy lifting of decision-making. It’s also saving our wallets from the hit, as the percentage of us with £2k+ in savings is on the up.
The downside of a no-holiday summer means that there’s no escape from daily life – filling up the calendar day-by-day means we’re finding it hard to focus and are struggling with chores. Skipping the holiday is helping with the finances of those with more, but those with no fat to cut are feeling the pressure; Klarna usage is on the up, especially for households under £30k.
School is on the mind, but back-to-school shopping is being kept to the essentials – coats and jumpers can wait. Exam results land next week and parents are excited, although for those with children aged 18+, they’re 5 points more likely to be worried about the job market than last year, so results mean even more.
“Summer close to home and loving the spontaneity of a good day out doesn’t mean that we’re not wanting things to look forward to. Create exciting moments that we can shout about and break up the everyday”
Laura Gillespie, Co-Founder, Konfidant
Brand actions: land the summer send-off
We’ve got 3 more weeks of holidays – make the memories count and break up the day-to-day:
- Sunshine does the heavy lifting – help people savour the last of it with low-effort wins
- Bring people together – give summer one final hurrah, not a perfect finale
- Back-to-school – make 'ready for week one' feel like ticking a list, not climbing a mountain
About the data
- The measure
- Every week we ask around 2,000 people across the UK how optimistic they feel about life – not only about money. Consumer Optimism subtracts the share who feel pessimistic from the share who feel optimistic. Alongside the survey we follow a community of 50 UK households, which is where the why comes from. The headline is a four-week rolling score, so one noisy week can't move the story.
- Sample and method
- Around 2,000 UK adults aged 18+, surveyed online and weighted by age, gender, region and social grade.
- Current wave
- n=9,205. Fieldwork: 12 Aug 2026.
- Question
- “Please click below to indicate how optimistic you are feeling about life in general at the moment.” The question scale includes the following responses: Very optimistic (Optimistic) Quite optimistic (Optimistic) Neither optimistic nor pessimistic (Neutral) Quite pessimistic (Pessimistic) Very pessimistic (Pessimistic) The Optimism net score is calculated as percentage optimistic minus percentage pessimistic.
- Headline score
- Four-week rolling average, around 8,000 interviews. Percentage-point change against the same four weeks last year.
- History
- Weekly since March 2020.
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