ubank Know Your Numbers research highlights 2021

Impact of social media on money management

• 1 in 5 (21%) Australians say social media has had a positive impact on the way they manage their money, while 17% think it has had a negative impact and 4 in 10 (41%) think it has had no impact at all, 1 in 10 (14%) Australians do not use social media.
• Men are more likely than women to say that social media has had a positive impact on the way they manage their money (27% compared to 16%), while women are more likely to say it has had a negative impact (20% compared to 14%).
• Gen Z (35%) are more likely than older generations to say social media has had a negative impact on the way they manage their money, while Millennials (35%) are more likely than all other generations to say it has had a positive impact on the way they manage their money.
• Married Australians are more likely than those who are not to say that social media has had a positive impact on the way they manage their money (27% compared to 14%).
• Australians with children under 18 at home are more likely than those without to say that social media has had a positive impact on the way they manage their money (37% compared to 14%).

Discretionary spending on non-essential items

• On average, Australians are spending almost $500 per month or $6,000 per year on discretionary items via social media/apps.
• Taking into account there are 19.75 million Australian adults, this is a whopping $118.24 billion dollars Australians are spending discretionary items each year via social media/apps.
• Australians are spending most each year on clothing/ shoes ($986), dining out ($979) and takeaway/home delivery ($904) via social media/apps.
• Interestingly, men are spending more on average each month than women on discretionary items via social media apps ($602 compared to $400), and in particular, are spending more on dining out ($102 compared to $62), entertainment ($86 compared to $56) and tech gadgets ($88 compared to $38).
• When it comes to generations, Millennials are spending the most on discretionary items via social media/apps each month ($773 compared to Gen X $528, Gen Z $465, Baby Boomers $236 and are spending more than all other generations in each category).
• Overall, Millennials account for 50% of all discretionary spending via social media/apps ($59.1 billion out of the $118.24 billion spent each year).

Proportion of total discretionary spend on non-essential items via social media/apps

• More than half of Australians (57%) are spending on discretionary items via social media apps.
• 1 in 4 (24%) Aussies say that 10% of their total discretionary spend on non-essential items is spent via social media/apps, 11% say it’s 20%, 11% say it’s 30-40%, 9% say it’s 50-70% and just 1% say it’s more than 70% of their total discretionary spend.
• Men (36%) are more likely than women (28%) to spend 20% or more of their total discretionary spend on non-essential items via social media/apps.
• Millennials (72%) spend the greatest proportion of their discretionary spend on non-essential items via social media/apps (compared to Gen Z 60%, Gen X 53% and Baby Boomers 41%).