4TH EDITION

2026 Australia Consumer Trends Report

Eight trends. 965 Australians. The clearest picture yet of how your customers are thinking, spending, and deciding – and what it means for your business.

BY THE NUMBERS

965

Australians surveyed nationally

8

Trends shaping consumer behaviour

67%

Still cite cost of living as their #1 concern

5th

Year tracking Australia’s consumer pulse

What's Inside

01

The cost-of-living marathon

Four years in, 67% of Australians continue to rank it #1 – and women are bearing the heaviest load.

02

Financial fragility & the retirement crisis

Women are nearly half as likely to feel retirement-ready as men. The gap is widening.

03

The housing squeeze

1 in 3 under-30s are still living at home. 21% of 45–64-year-olds have adult children still living at home – and 50% of parents in this position say their expenses have worsened..

04

The loneliness epidemic

54% experience loneliness at least sometimes, and it peaks among the young, not the old.

05

Using AI turns sceptics into believers

Active users are three times more optimistic and half as worried as those yet to try it.

06

Digital hygiene

1 in 4 admit their screen time is excessive – and 34% have no screen management strategies at all.

07

The volunteering paradox

54% feel personally responsible to volunteer. Only 32% actually did in the past year. The gap is about flexibility, not apathy.

08

The workplace recalibration

Flexibility is losing to money. 42% of workers would trade lifestyle perks for a pay rise – up sharply from 15% who’d do the reverse.