When it came to picking brands based on their sustainability bona fides, the Stifel/Morning Consult study found males cared more than females, Gen Z cared more than millennials and Gen Xers, and Black consumers care more than Hispanic and white consumers.

Usage in the older group rose, but fewer young adults tuned in than during the year prior. The average time spent with broadcast TV was 2:01 daily in H1 2021. The broadcast radio audience was a good deal smaller than that for live TV, at 69.2% of internet users. Live radio listening accounted for 1:09 per day, on average—a marginal increase from 2020.

By contrast, teens and young adults are still the driving force behind digital audio takeup. Seven in 10 respondents had streamed music, podcasts, audiobooks, or other digital audio content in the month prior. But penetration among 16- to-24-year-olds (87.3%) was more than double that in the oldest age bracket (40.2%). Voice assistants, too, are more popular with younger people.

In our study, Gen Zers or millennials generally displayed higher demand than older consumers for mobile banking features across categories. SIN monitoring was no exception, with 56% of Gen Zers calling it “extremely valuable”—but interest was both high and steady among millennials, Gen Xers, and baby boomers, at 45% of each cohort. See the interactive Security and Control demand chart in the Appendix.

Millennials are also poised to become a new target audience for wealth managers. The wealth transfer will see this generation hold five times as much wealth by 2030 as it did in 2019. Of note, 80% of Gen X and millennial heirs say they’ll look for a new financial advisor after inheriting their wealth.

As in 2020, usage was generally higher among young adults ages 16 to 34, but internet users in high-income households posted the highest penetration, at over 26%.

For a deeper dive into where mobile factors into consumers’ banking choices—particularly for Gen Z and millennials—check out our “US Mobile Banking Benchmark.”.

Millennials and Gen Zers constitute the bulk of mobile proximity payment users right now: Combined, they will make up 68.9% of users in 2021 and reach 71.4% by 2025, per our estimates. Unsurprisingly, groups already immersed in digital technology favor mobile payments.

For example, Bankrate noted that older millennials, at ages 26 to 32, have kept their checking and primary savings accounts for an average of more than nine years and over seven years, respectively. Respondents over 55 years old have kept their checking accounts for the longest average period, at 24.6 years. People ages 35 to 54 have done so for 14.1 years.

Lower cost was a top reason for using telehealth among consumers—particularly among Gen Zers (38%) and millennials (28%), per our 2021 Telehealth Trend survey. What’s next? We’ll see telehealth become more of a concrete part of healthcare considering its ROI potential for health systems and hospitals contending with staff shortage crises and rising healthcare spending.

While nearly 35% of millennials think home ownership is important, just 26% of Gen Zers feel the same, per a recent Apartment List study. The big takeaway: Despite not quite existing yet, the metaverse may be already too big to fail. The revenue opportunity could become $800 billion by 2024, per Bloomberg Intelligence.

Brands have sought after millennials since the segment was identified as a demographic phenomenon reminiscent of the boomers. There’s been heavy investment in the creation of products and services that fit within an evolving consumer culture, one increasingly defined by this influential cohort. Growing independence and earning make this group the most digitally connected of all.