With Easter recently upon us, many people will have relished tucking into a chocolate egg or two, especially those who decided to give up chocolate for Lent. After all, chocolate is extremely popular amongst British consumers.
Latest GB TGI data reveals that 80% of adults claim to have eaten chocolate bars or other chocolate items (excluding boxed chocolates) in the last 12 months. 17% of these chocolate eaters (7.3 million people) claim to eat such products every day, which is similar to the figure for Spain (18%) but more than Germany (10%) and France (5%).
A look at how the proportion of those eating chocolate every day has evolved in recent years we see a gradual but very steady rise, from 11% of adults in 2018, climbing to today’s figure of 14%.
Amongst those who eat chocolate once a day or more, milk chocolate is the favourite, consumed by 84% of this group. Dark chocolate and white chocolate are more or less evenly popular with these heavy chocolate eaters, with 46% and 45% respectively claiming to eat these. In addition, 8% of those eating chocolate every day (over 600,000 people) claim to eat vegan chocolate.
Despite its seemingly unassailable popularity, milk chocolate has seen a small fall in its popularity in recent years. Two years ago 91% of heavy chocolate consumers claimed to eat it, before it dropped to 84% today.
Dark chocolate and white chocolate have also seen their fortunes change in recent years. At the start of 2020 44% of heavy chocolate eaters claimed to eat dark chocolate, but this jumped to 55% a year later – doubtless in no small part as a result of the pandemic prompting people to do more baking.
White chocolate saw a similar rise over the same period. However, in both cases the popularity of these two chocolate types has now returned more or less to where it was pre-pandemic.
Those in the TGI lifestage group Playschool Parents (live with son/daughter and youngest child aged 0-4) are 41% more likely than the average chocolate eater to consume chocolate once a day or more. This may in part be a result of them being particularly busy. After all, those who eat chocolate daily are 28% more likely than the average chocolate eater to claim that they often eat snacks while on the move rather than eating a proper meal.
These heavy chocolate eaters are also particularly likely to engage with a variety of advertising and marketing initiatives. For example, they are 26% more likely than the average chocolate eater to say that they are swayed by other people’s views, 25% more likely to say they prefer to buy products from companies who sponsor TV programmes and 21% more likely to say that they are tempted to buy products they have seen advertised. They are also particularly likely to engage with a range of specific media.
