With five days to go, barely half have bought all their Christmas presents

Matthew SmithHead of Data Journalism
December 20, 2016, 1:13 PM GMT+0

YouGov’s Christmas present tracker finds that 51% of people have bought all their Christmas presents so far

With less than a week to go until Christmas, and with the last full shopping weekend before the big day behind us, YouGov’s Christmas present tracker finds that just 51% of people have bought all of their Christmas presents. Whilst this is up significantly from 21% eleven days ago, it shows how a large proportion of Brits will be doing last-minute present shopping.

The number of people who say they have bought "most" of their presents has dipped slightly (down to 29% from 35%) as the big day approaches and shoppers brace themselves for a final push. However, one in nine (12%) are taking things to the wire, with the number of people having only bought “some” of their Christmas presents standing at 8%, while just 4% haven’t done any shopping at all.

In the first survey of the tracker, we found that young people were the least likely to have bought all their presents so far. This remains the case, and younger people are falling further behind their older peers. Only 32% of 18-24 year olds have bought all their Christmas presents, compared to 61% of those aged 55 or older.

With pre-Christmas sales starting earlier and earlier each year, sales this year have reportedly been poor so far, with customers having held off buying their presents in the hope of securing big discounts.

Another factor could be at play though. Recent YouGov research has also found that one in five Brits look to buy presents for Christmas during sales days earlier in the festive shopping season (such as Black Friday).

Photo: iStockphoto

See the full results here

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