Do It Yourself or DIY has become greatly popular since the pandemic has forced people to stay indoors since early 2020. Over the last two years, the DIY stores in the UK have improved on their sales drastically, with a particular brand B&M Stores increasing their turnover in 2021 to more than a million GBP than 2020. This was not an isolated incident either; the entire industry has seen exponential growth in this timeperiod. But, which demographic was the key to this boom? Was it boomers or millennials?
It is common for people to assume that boomers might be the ones that are more interested or better at DIY, but the statistical data shows that boomers and millennials have similar interests in DIY. The data varies in different points, but overall, it offers equal interest among both demographic groups. Let’s look at the various DIY projects and how these two demographics fair against each other in each category.
Comparing The Interest Of Millennials & Boomers Across Various DIY Categories
● Room Decoration
According to the statistical data from chums.co.uk, millennials and boomers share similar interests in room decoration DIY methods. The details are mentioned below in a tabular format.
Boomers
| Activity | Interest/Ability in Percentage |
| Painting A Wall | 85.8% confident can paint a wall |
| Putting Up A Wallpaper | 48.6% know how to put up a wallpaper |
| Upcycling furniture | 52.6% are positive they can do it |
| Upholstering furniture | 52% can do it |
Millennials
| Activity | Interest/Ability in Percentage |
| Painting A Wall | 79.2% confident can paint a wall |
| Putting Up A Wallpaper | 43.2% know how to put up a wallpaper |
| Upcycling furniture | 52% are positive they can do it |
| Upholstering furniture | 40.4% can do it |
So, you can see the data clearly shows there is not much disparity in the willingness of both these demographics in trying out and doing general room decoration DIY methods.
● Thorough Cleaning
Cleaning is an important household task that is crucial for you to do when you are staying home. Apart from the regular dusting and vacuuming, certain specialised cleaning jobs were used to statistically calculate how adept these two demographics are at handling the various situations. Let’s compare the data.
Boomers
| Activity | Interest/Ability in Percentage |
| Unblocking a toilet | 72% confident can unblock a toilet |
| Removing bathroom mould | 78.2% can remove bathroom mould |
| Removing carpet stains | Major percentage confident can remove stains |
| Getting rid of mice | 55.4% can do it |
Millennials
| Activity | Interest/Ability in Percentage |
| Unblocking a toilet | 65.4% confident can unblock a toilet |
| Removing bathroom mould | 64.6% can remove bathroom mould |
| Removing carpet stains | Major percentage confident can remove stains |
| Getting rid of mice | 42.4% can do it |
Another article by Chums on the divide of DIY in the different generations discusses how the different generations feel about DIY and their confidence in doing the tasks. Their data suggest that whilst there is no abundant difference between the two generational groups in their abilities and confidence in DIY, there was a difference in the different types of tasks they felt confident in.
Final Thoughts
The statistical data clearly shows that no one demographic is much ahead of the other. Indeed, the boomer population is slightly more adept at handling DIY solutions. Still, the millennial crowd is not much behind, and the knowledge gap is expected to close even more, considering the availability of more educational resources for DIY functions online.
