Trends - Money
  Attitudes to earning, spending and saving money 1983-2004

A new report from the Schools Health Education Unit, written using data from the Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire surveys. The report uses a sample of 370,049 young people between the ages of 12-15 from across the UK.

When looking over the figures since 1983 we find that, in recent years, young people are more likely to...
  • put money into savings schemes, with around 35% of males compared to around 30% of females report saving money. 12-13 year old males consistently report more interest and 14-15 year old females least interest in saving money
Trends in Savings 1993-2004 Young people and putting money into a saving scheme



  • spend more: up to 45% of 14-15 year olds (2003) report spending more than £10 'last week'. In 2004, 10% of 14-15 year old males spent more than £40 'last week'
  • spend more on recorded music, clothes and footwear, computer games and fast foods. In 2004 - 12-13 year old females: clothes/footwear and recorded music, 12-13 year old males: computer games and 14-15 year olds males: fast food
We also find that young people in recent years are less likely to...
  • have a regular, paid term-time job - around 37% of 14-15 year olds in the last few years compared to over 40% in the 1980s and early 1990s have worked more than 5 hours in the 'previous week' - around 40% of 14-15 year olds in the last few years compared to around 50% in the late 1980s and early 1990s spend money on sweets and chocolates
We also find little change in the numbers of young people who.
  • carry out paid work baby sitting or a paper round
  • spend money on cigarettes, alcohol, cosmetics and toiletries


For comments on this report contact
Dr David Regis Research Manager

Tel:01392 667272


SHEU is an independent research and publishing organisation. Each year the Schools Health Education Unit supports surveys in hundreds of communities nation wide and compiles the results from these surveys in the series 'Young People in.'. The survey services began in the late 1970s and have been very widely used, and from the data bases (from 1983 onwards) we are publishing data to allow examination of trends. Our annual survey sample is accidental and not deliberate and is therefore not a representative 'national sample' in a research sense. It is however very large, and within any one community is never less than 40% of the community and often greater than 70%. The aim is to provide robust data for the community in which the data are collected and used. With such large samples it comes as no surprise to discover that Unit's annual data compilations usually match the outcomes of orthodox procedures for the collection of 'national data'.