An analysis of UK consumers aged 55+ examining later-life lifestyles across health and independence, financial planning and care, multigenerational roles, digital confidence, and purchase preferences, helping brands shape inclusive propositions,…
UK
All Industries
simple
UK Lifestyles of Over-55s: 2026
An analysis of UK consumers aged 55+ examining later-life lifestyles across health and independence, financial planning and care, multigenerational roles, digital confidence, and purchase preferences, helping brands shape inclusive propositions, services and communications.
"As later life becomes longer and more diverse, the brands that help people maintain choice and control will win."
Rich Shepherd, Associate Principal - Consumer Insights
Report Coverage (at a glance)
Later-life lifestages and the implications of differing household structures, responsibilities and needs across the over-55 audience.
Healthspan/longer-life themes, including mobility, wellbeing and the positioning space around “healthy ageing” rather than appearance-led narratives.
Financial security and preparedness across mid-to-later life, including retirement readiness and long-term care considerations framed within future planning.
Consumer inclusion challenges and enablers for digital and service adoption, spanning trust, security and access to human support.
Key Insights Featured in this Report
How consumers describe their age identity and how they perceive “typical” people their age, informing stereotype-aware engagement.
What consumers consider when approaching healthy ageing, including how needs cut across health, beauty, nutrition, fitness and preventative wellbeing.
Which factors shape purchase choice, including the roles of price/quality, brand reputation and trust cues (eg endorsements vs track record).
Where opportunities are evaluated for brands to reflect multigenerational realities, including caregiving responsibilities and shared experiences.
How this Report Supports Your Strategy
Enables segmentation and targeting work that goes beyond age bands by integrating lifestage, lifestyle and household-context variables.
Informs proposition and innovation pipelines linked to independence, mobility and confidence-building service design (including self-serve vs human help).
Guides messaging and creative development to reflect diverse later-life identities and avoid narrow, assumption-led portrayals of ageing.
Shapes planning-journey design across money, home and care by mapping how later-life decisions can be broken into manageable steps.
Who this Report is For
Brand, comms and media teams building age-inclusive positioning and creative that reflects varied later-life lifestyles.
Product, UX and service design teams (eg tech-enabled services) reducing friction and increasing trust via clearer design and access to support.
Health, beauty, nutrition and fitness innovation teams developing cross-category offers aligned to healthy-ageing lifestyles.
Financial services, retirement, housing and care-adjacent teams shaping customer journeys and tools for future planning and long-term needs.
When I’m investigating specific sectors I tend to use Mintel reports for their forecasting, which I’ve always found to be very accurate.
They also offer really broad and deep coverage in their reports. They are very, very detailed. For example, we were able to gain insight across a wide range of business areas from just one report, proving that Mintel is excellent value for money.
So overall, it’s the level of detail and the quality of forecasting that really stand out for me.
Rebecca Green, Market Insight Manager, Wincanton
We’ve found it so useful working more closely with Mintel. They helped support our recent flagship event for our top suppliers by providing a really unique viewpoint on the future of online retailing.
Nick Carroll from their Retail Team was also an excellent panelist, sharing useful and actionable consumer insights. We definitely look forward to working with Mintel again on future projects.
Zac Steele, E-Commerce Trading Development Manager, Waitrose & Partners
One of the biggest challenges we face is the need to get smart on a business or category real quick.
We are talking to clients who live and breathe their category every day and the expectation is that we will be able to get caught up very quickly, and bring the thinking that can help them.
We need to do that often in a matter of days, so it’s not a small ask. Mintel gives us a very articulate view of category conditions and does so at the speed we need it.
Jeff White, Business Development Director, Deutsch
There is no question that Mintel is the go-to resource for the best quality market research, but I did not think it was an affordable option for Abacus Marketing to consider. As a small marketing agency, we only work with a few new clients each year.
However, we have a very high-end consultative approach to our work, so we really do need a partner like Mintel to provide the big agency experience we are always aiming to deliver. Our clients come from an incredibly diverse range of industry sectors, so we obviously need access to market research reports from a very wide spectrum of marketplaces – and that is precisely what we got.
Stephen Taylor-Brown, Managing Director, Abacus
Mintel is really good for getting a handle on a particular category quickly. If we are working on a new business pitch in an area we don’t have much experience in, it’s a brilliant way to get up to speed with what’s going on, what’s changing and what the key trends are in any category.
It’s very rare now that anyone will plough through a 200-page report – that’s why the summaries are really useful. We know they are backed up by a lot of detail, so if you need to go into something in more depth you know the information will be all there for you.
Pauline Robson, Managing Partner, Mediacom
We use Mintel Reports, mostly for financial services and ecommerce markets, plus a few retail and technology ones.
As a leading payments provider, we value additional insights into consumer behaviour, opinions and trends that are shaping the many different markets we operate in. Mintel is a very good and very quick way for us to obtain those insights.
We use Mintel to get a view on where a particular market is going, which can support us in product development and help us identify opportunities or indeed risks, it is a very useful barometer of a market’s potential.
Andrew Neeson, Market Intelligence Manager, VocaLink
At Jackman, we believe that powerful strategies are based on human insight. Mintel’s leading-edge reports and insights into consumer attitudes and behaviors are an important input as we develop and execute strategy.
Alana Gavin, VP Research and Insights, Jackman
Mintel helps us when we want to know something quickly – it provides fast answers to our questions. If we need to get a view of what’s going on in a particular market it’s very useful.
When carrying out background research, I find Mintel an excellent starting point.
The fact that it covers so many markets is a big plus for me– instead of having to buy specialist products in each area we are interested in, especially when we only require a brief view on a particular market, we can go to Mintel for help as a one-stop shop. I find Mintel a useful and valuable resource.
Ben Zeidler, Director - Research and Analytics, Tenth Wave
We have such a great working relationship with Mintel on lots of different levels. As an insight partner, they have helped us to develop our business planning in specific categories as well as supporting our creative process but they’ve also been super helpful with facilitating our events in their inspirational offices near St Paul’s.
They’re an innovative company, with a client-focused team that always delivers.
Abby Carvosso, Group Managing Director, Bauer Media Group
Working in a customer-obsessed organization means that data and insights have to be at our fingertips. Mintel’s reports help us support anecdotes with real quantifiable insights. The summary sections (which I really like) helps save time by giving a birds eye view of the content before spending time combing through the pages.
Our business review discussions are strengthened by the relevancy of the reports to help us better understand our customers. In addition, the customer service received from the team (especially in crunch periods) makes the process of understanding customer behavior even better.
We use Mintel to inform our thinking and reinforce strategy. If you’re presenting new ideas, it’s essential they are underpinned by robust data and evidence, and clearly rooted in fact.
Mintel gives us all that. It’s a great brand and one that is trusted by clients.
Marie Stafford, European Director, The Innovation Group, VML
We utilize Mintel Reports, Trends and Comperemedia to mine for insights across the numerous business verticals that Epsilon serves, such as CPG, automotive, telecom, healthcare/pharma, retail and financial services.
By integrating Mintel insight into new business opportunities, we have been able to gain the competitive edge necessary to advance partnerships with global brands and key business players.
For our organization, it’s about depth and breadth. Having one without the other doesn’t enable success in our business.
Virginia Harvey, Secondary Research Manager, Epsilon