Consumer Optimism Tracker
The weekly read on UK consumer optimism –
how Britain feels, who feels it, why, and what brands should do next.
21 Aug 2026Published 28 Oct 2026Konfidant Week 33Read time: 2 min
UK Consumer Optimism at +28 as we breeze through summer
Summer has been a blur as we swap stress for treats and put off the big things.
Net optimism, four-week rolling · 28 Aug 2021 to 21 Aug 2026
Four-week headline +28 · no change on last year
Latest weekly signal +27 · 1 point lower than last year
Four-week headline +28
No change on last year
What's changing
Summer | Lovely but samey – weeks blur together |
News | None for me please – keeping the worries out |
Treats | The 5-second yes – small joys, please |
Bank Holiday | Not planned on purpose – keeping it open for one last twist |
Football | Right on cue – ready-made conversations |
Back to it | Left late – a summer of not looking will catch up |
The blur of an easy summer means we’re putting off the practical
We’re keeping summer light and easy, keeping the world out as we focus on cheap thrills; only 44% of us are following the news, down 4 points against the average. We’re favouring small treats that slip under the radar over anything that might wake the internal accountant – saving and planning our spending are both down 4 points on last year.
Keeping everything easy-breezy does mean that our summer is starting to blur, and we’re talking less about the big moments and more about the everyday. So, before summer ends, we want a break in the script – keeping our final Bank Holiday free of plans, hoping for one last moment that gives us a story to tell.
Riding high after a summer of international football, we’re looking forward to the return of the Premier League. We’ll be following it for the story, as a way to connect at the pub or at the office.
With September around the corner, finances will be the first thing to come back into focus – the proportion of us with £1k+ of debt is up one point against the average, and we’re out of practice when it comes to money management. This time of year also means back to school and university, and the buying has been left later than last year, by an average of 5 points across things like rucksacks, uniforms and stationery.
“We’re focusing on the small to bring joy to our lives right now, but that doesn’t mean that brands shouldn’t focus on big feelings. Use the ease we’re feeling right now to make yeses easy.”
Alison Bainbridge, Co-Founder, Konfidant
Brand actions: help us end summer on a high
Create one last blast as the back-to-school chaos takes over:
- Don’t add pressure – keep the Bank Holiday stress-free
- Memories matter – give us something special to remember the summer by
- Bridge the shift – make the transition soft
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=9,214. Fieldwork: 19 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.
Previous Consumer Optimism articles
See allGet ahead of the competition
Keep track of how consumer changes will impact your business with the Konfidant platform
Try for free
Your unfair advantage, every Monday
Join our newsletter for a sharp take on what Britain’s really feeling, why it matters and what to do about it. Grounded in our weekly research with 2,000 people.