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Is there demographic information about people that cook at home in the UK?
Hello! Thank you for choosing Wonder to find out the demographic information of people that cook at home in the UK.
The short version is that the Millennial generation, quickly followed by Gen X, are taking up the largest space of home cooking in the UK. This group is largely using mobile devices and social media, and tends to cook at least two-thirds of their meals at home. Below is a deep dive into my findings.
METHODOLOGY
To access demographic information, I researched who was involved in social media and watching the home cooking shows in the UK. I then researched recent white paper studies about eating and cooking statistics in the UK. I perused many articles and also used some findings from recent surveys that have been taken in the UK. I included some trends as well as some historical changes over the last 10 years.
FINDINGS
Who does the cooking?
Women still do the majority of the meal preparation compared to men in British households. In fact, women are preparing food on average, twice as often as men. An interesting fact from a study done in 2014 cites that "men (31%) are more likely than women (26%) to feel pride from cooking a meal, and are also more likely to feel adventurous" from the experience. 61% of the UK adult population cites cooking at home to save money. With the Millennial generation being the largest consumer of online home cooking media, ThinkwithGoogle.com states, they are bringing their "I-want-to-do attitudes and their mobile devices into the kitchen. They’re turning to mobile at every phase of the cooking journey—deciding what to make, learning how to prepare it, and actually cooking or baking—and smart brands are there to help in each micro-moment."
Who's Not Cooking?
In 2015, an article from the School for Public Health Research stated that "1 in 5 people in the UK dine out or eat takeaway food at least once a week." In a study from 2015, it states that of 509 adults surveyed, only two-thirds cooked a minimum of 5 nights per week. Another survey of 10,000 British people found "16% of all men and 5% of women admitted to not being able to cook anything." Between 2007 and 2014, a reduction was seen in the following fresh food items that would be required for cooking, purchased by UK low income households; vegetables (-6.56%), fruit (-11%), meat (-17%). According to an article in October 2015, young adults under 24 are buying the most takeaway food. Most of these young people know how to make only 4 meals or less from scratch. Roughly 40% of the British adult population eats out frequently, citing deals and more discretionary income as the reason.
DEMOGRAPHICS
UK adults age 19-34 included in a study from 2015, were least confident in their cooking skills. Cooking skills were noted to be lacking in the following demographics; men, younger adults, and those in the least affluent social groups.
The following is a breakdown of social media demographics.
BBC Food: London, Twitter Feed: 0.3 Million Followers
Foodie, London, Twitter Feed: 90K Followers
HOME COOKING TRENDS
As stated by Euromonitor, "In 2011, 55% of respondents worldwide still cook a meal entirely from raw ingredients on a regular basis (at least once a week), while 38% do so using some pre-prepared ingredients." In 2014, the editor of BBC Good Food Magazine stated, "Traditional trends are prevalent, something we’ve seen in recent years with the increased interest in home baking. We know that cooking is a feel-good activity, with large numbers of respondents saying they felt happy, comforted or inspired when cooking, so the more we can encourage people to cook, the better."
CONCLUSION
To wrap up, the largest part of the British population cooking at home includes the generations of Millennials, followed closely by the Gen X, with twice as many women preparing meals than men. Young adults, aged 24 or less and low income households eat more takeaway food than any other demographic. The trends in the UK kitchen are turning towards mobile devices, healthy eating, economic savings and comfort.
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