Child-free vs parenting Millennials: What's the big difference?

Often in the world of consumer insights, we look at how habits, behaviors, and expectations vary by generation.

Of course, there's much more that determines our attitudes and choices other than our age. So this time, we decided to slice and dice the data by a different potentially determining factor: Whether or not you have kids.

For the sake of this research, we looked at Millennials only, and then divided them into two cohorts - those with children, and those without children. 

Who drinks alcohol more frequently?

We started at alcohol intake frequency, fully expecting significant differences. Perhaps the child-free can hang on to their party lifestyle longer, or perhaps parents drink more frequently to blow off steam.

And yet...

We found no significant difference between the rates at which Millennials - parents or child-free - drink alcohol. 

• 25% of Millennials are drinking once or twice a month

• 21-22% say they're drinking less than once a month

• Another 20-22% say they're drinking once or twice a week

Who exercises more?

Surely then, we thought, there will be significant differences in how often they are able to exercise. Parents are busy! Who has time to exercise?

It turns out, either parents make the time to exercise, or child-free Millennials simply have no excuse. Once again, there is little to no difference between these cohorts.

• 1 out of 3 Millennials are exercising 3-4 times a week, regardless of parenthood status

• 29-31% are exercising 1-2 times a week

How do parents vs child-free millennials shop?

Let's get into groceries, then, where we thought, surely, we'd see how these two groups really differ. If you're a parent, you are more likely to seek out better-for-you, healthier alternatives, right?!

Once again, these Millennials disappointed us. When we measured the rate at which they're likely to shop for healthier alternatives, both parents and non-parents gave similar answers.

("I actively seek out healthier alternatives but don't always buy them" was the most popular answer for both cohorts. 52% of child-free Millennials chose this option, compared to 49% of parenting Millennials.)

It stands to reason, we thought, that if millennial parents aren't prioritizing healthier alternatives, perhaps they're prioritizing value? So we asked, do you always pay more for better quality?

Can we say we found our first small insight? It turns out, child-free Millennials are slightly more likely than their parent counterparts (23% versus 19%) to say they "usually" pay more for better quality products - although "sometimes pay more" was by far the more popular answer for both groups (50% for each).

As to favorite grocery stores, we finally started to see these two segments diverge:

For the child-free, Trader Joe's is a favorite (44%), while the parenting Millennials are opting for Aldi (49%).

Millennials also differ slightly on their Big Box store preferences. While Millennials of all parenthood statuses rate Walmart in first place (88% for parents, 76% for the child-free), parents apparently have a penchant for Sam's Club (and to a lesser extent, BJ's).

Taking a closer look at social media habits

We saved our favorite for last. When we look at favorite social media platforms, we tend to think of these channels in terms of generation, i.e., Gen Z loves TikTok. So it's interesting to see how much this varies between members of the same generation (Millennials) depending on whether they have kids or not.

For parents, Facebook is the big winner (89% are users), while the child-free prefer Instagram slightly (81% are users). Parents are also more likely to use TikTok (62% for parents, 53% for the child-free) and Pinterest (40% for parents, 31% for the child-free), while you're more likely to find the child-free on Reddit (53% versus 38%).

Once again, the data has humbled us. This deep dive was an important reminder that our own (biased, anecdotal) logic and reason is no match for real consumer insights. So let's all take this a note: Never assume - run the numbers!