What Age Groups Consume the Most Media?

It’s a question we get almost every day from current and prospective clients. Usually it focuses on Social Media, but of late Social Media is getting lumped into “media consumption” as a whole. Let’s put this into perspective. Generationally speaking.We think the question is more appropriately posited as “What media is most popular by age group?” Different age groups consume media in different ways. Understanding this is vital to developing effective communications strategies, advertising or marketing.

We developed a chart that can help understand this issue a little easier. Showing preferences for media consumption. This chart was compiled by us from our own research and combining other empirical sources.

What this really says is that now, all ages are consuming all the various media channels. Some less so than others. Age range definitely makes a difference. The older the demographic the less “digital media” consumed.

We’ve found an increase in the number of people 60+ online and we don’t see a significant drop until we hit 80+ in terms of new media consumption. Secondary to what media is consumed by each group is “where” and this is increasingly becoming a key component to developing effective marketing and communications strategies. More on that another time.

(Author: G. Crouch, Managing Director)