February 2nd, 2024, Lesley Simeon
With the cost of living increasing in many markets last year, in this piece, we look at the proportion of people in markets around the world who will need to lean on credit to make ends meet in 2024.
While nearly half of all consumers (49%) say they are unlikely to feel the need to do so, around one in five consumers (19%) told us they are likely to need to credit to cover their outgoings this year. An equal proportion of consumers (19%) say they are neither likely nor unlikely to feel the need to use credit for outgoings in the coming months.
YouGov’s demographic data reveals that more than one in five men (21%) across markets say they will feel the need to use credit to cover their outgoings. As for women, less than one in five (18%) share the sentiment.
Further, 35-to-44-year-olds are the most likely across age groups (24%) to say they’ll need to use their credit to cover outgoings this year, closely followed by 25-to-34-year-olds (23%). Consumers aged 55 years and above (14%) are the least likely to agree.
Looking at data from individual markets, we see that consumers in the UAE (38%) account for the largest proportion of those who say they are likely to feel the need to use credit to cover their outgoings in the coming months. Mexicans (32%) and Canadians (27%) follow.
Americans are more likely than Brits to say they will need to cover their outgoings using credit (23% vs. 16%).
On the other hand, consumers in Denmark (7%), Germany (8%) and Sweden (9%) are the least likely to say they will feel the need to pay for outgoings via credit.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 2001 and 500 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in November 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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