Daily Research News Online no. 3743 - Income of Europe's Teens and Tweens

Income of Europe's Teens and Tweens

January 26 2005

The UK's 'Tweens' and Teenagers are Europe's richest, according to new results from Datamonitor. Annual income per capita reached £775 in 2003 - more than twice as much as their Spanish counterparts.

'Parents are curtailing the growth in the pocket money that they give children, partly through fear of encouraging excessive consumerist behaviour at an early age but also increasingly because of fears regarding the consumption of unhealthy food and drinks' according to Lawrence Gould, Consumer Markets Analyst and author of the report at Datamonitor, which forecasts that their annual income will increase by almost 10%, to £848 in 2008.

The number of Tweens and Teens in Europe is set to decrease by almost 1% annually, from 32.5 million in 2003 to 31.4 million in 2008. The UK is one of the very few European countries where the Tween and Teen population is forecast to increase over the period, albeit marginally. The total expenditure of European Tweens' on food, soft drinks and personal care in 2003 was £2.5bn.

Teen & Tween annual income per capita (£/head)
	2003	2008
UK	775.0	848.4
Sweden	697.5	775.0
Netherlands	575.7	620.0
France	442.9	496.0
Germany	438.8	492.1
Italy	341.0	402.2
Spain	310.0	376.4

Overall Europe	496.0	562.7

Most of the increase in income results from handouts - sums of money given by a parent or family member for a specific purchase such as an item of clothing. Handouts accounted for almost 30% of Teens' discretionary income in 2003.

By 2008, the report forecasts that almost 13% of Teen and Tween spending will be on toiletries and cosmetics. In 2003 British female Teenagers were more likely to use make-up than any of their European counterparts, 73% doing so.

The report, 'Tween and Teen Trends', defines Tweens as consumers aged from 10 to 13 years and teens as consumers aged from 14 to 17 years. The company's web site is at www.datamonitor.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.