What is happening to British Yoof ?

Whatever is happening to the young in Britain I would think their parents approve. The Economist has some interesting data about how young people in the UK are taking less drugs, drinking less, have less unwanted pregnancies. All in all doing the things that their parents have been praying for.

What is the explanation? 

This is what the Economist has to say. 

The proportion of 15- to 24-year-olds who identify themselves as “white British” has fallen slightly in the past decade, to about 80%. Among the groups filling the gap are British Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, who are less likely to drink or take drugs than their white peers.

Just as important, young people have less money with which to indulge their hedonistic instincts. Far fewer young people work than did ten years ago, because of the economic slump and the expansion of higher education. Many more of them live with their parents. Even those who do have jobs tend to earn less than they used to. Between 1997 and 2011 the average weekly wage earned by 18- to 21-year-olds declined by one-tenth in real terms. It is considerably harder to be rebellious if you have no money and live in your childhood bedroom.
OK, marketers remember that this is the group that many of you have been targeting as the future of our brand. There is still a big band of marketers who subscribe to the notion of 'getting them young' and the willingness of the young to change brands etc etc etc.

Just as the older market has and keeps changing so does that of the young. I get the feeling that a lot of marketers are always 5+ years behind the trend and trying to cater for the market as is was in the past. I hope I am wrong. Dick Stroud