Consumer Optimism Tracker
The weekly read on UK consumer optimism –
how Britain feels, who feels it, why, and what brands should do next.
18 Sep 2026Published 26 Oct 2026Konfidant Week 37Read time: 2 min
UK Consumer Optimism reaches +31 as Britain settles into a holding pattern
We're tuning out the country's problems and looking for peace and a sure thing closer to home – and finding enough to lift the mood
Net optimism, four-week rolling · 24 Sep 2021 to 18 Sep 2026
Four-week headline +31 · 5 points higher than last year
Latest weekly signal +30 · 6 points higher than last year
Four-week headline +31
5 points higher than last year
What's changing
Autumn routines | Settled in – comfort for those with money, a knife edge without |
State of the country | Calm, not fixed – less afraid, but lots for Burnham to sort |
Work | Scared to push – work-life balance is too fragile to risk |
Health | Still a priority – energy back is this year's health kick |
Connection | Revivals win – familiar places, old friends, known endings |
Christmas | Looking for fuller, not dearer – sure things now, the rest left late |
Calm, not fixed – and scared to push
Routine has settled in and that brings comfort to some, dread for others – families with £50k+ household income are feeling relief compared to last year, whereas families under £50k are feeling terrified by their finances as life is controlled more by rising costs than routine. Inflation rose to 3.1% this week and petrol broke £1.70 a litre. Even so, most fears about the state of the country are lower than a year ago, with the NHS and political unrest both down seven points.
We’re keeping half an eye on the news and the rest of our attention on sorting our own lives. The exception comes from the job market - fear has climbed for four years, and this week crossed back above the average of all fears for the first time since 2021. Our response tells us more: we want the promotion and the work-life balance, both at once – because, for many, a meaningful pay rise now appears to depend on promotion, while promotion risks the balance we’re only just holding onto.
Feelings on Christmas are also split, as we’re looking for a bigger celebration without the cost. Expect a late start as we wait for finances to be in better shape – or at least until we know for sure how much we have to spend.
“People haven’t decided the country has recovered yet. They’re narrowing their world – towards routines, old friends and plans they can trust. That has lifted optimism despite grim national news. Job anxiety is high, so for brands the sure thing wins.”
Laura Gillespie, Co-Founder, Konfidant
Brand actions: offer certainty when life feels uncertain
Thin energy will squeeze what we follow through on, so momentum matters:
- Keep the tone light – energy is taken up as autumn settles in
- Make home the safe haven – control and calm to shield from the uncertainty outside
- Make it low effort, high certainty – make bigger-not-dearer seem possible
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=9,173. Fieldwork: 16 Sep 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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