Ages 3–5
Pre-schoolers
The earliest influences: play patterns, first characters and the screen habits that form before school.
Kids Insights
Kids and teen market research, in real time.
Independent, first-party research with children and teenagers aged 3 to 18, in 22 markets, collected every week since 2017. Generation Alpha and Gen Z in their own words, not modelled and not scraped.
Ages 3–18
22 markets
Weekly fieldwork
Since 2017
What it is
The largest continuous study of kids and teens.
Kids Insights asks children and teenagers the same questions, the same way, every week, in every market we cover. That is what separates it from a study commissioned once and read for the next three years.
Surveyed directly, not inferred
We ask children themselves, with parental consent and age-appropriate design. Nothing here is modelled from adult data or scraped from social platforms.
Weekly, not annual
410 responses a week per market, 21,300 a year. A shift in what kids watch or want shows up as a movement in the data, not as a difference between two unrelated studies.
Comparable across markets
One method in all 22 markets, so a finding in the UK can be read against Germany, the US or Japan without caveats about incompatible samples.
Continuous since 2017
Nine years of the same questions means you can see where a category, a platform or a property has come from, not just where it is now.
Who we survey
Five life stages, from pre-school to school leaver.
A six-year-old and a sixteen-year-old are not one audience. We report by single year of age and group into five distinct stages, so you can read the cohort that matters to you rather than an average of all of them.
Ages 6–9
Kids
Independence grows as school, friendships and pocket money begin shaping choices.
Ages 10–12
Pre-teens
Curiosity and influence build as they navigate their own devices and the first social platforms.
Ages 13–15
Teens
Tastemakers form, as self-expression, content and peer influence take over from family recommendation.
Ages 16–18
Older teens
On the brink of adulthood: independent spending, brand loyalty and decisions made without a parent in the room.
Teen market research
Teenagers are covered in full.
Teen market research is often sold separately, sampled thinly and run once a year. Ours is not. Teenagers aged 13 to 18 sit inside Kids Insights on the same weekly fieldwork as every other age group, which means you can follow the same person's cohort from pre-school into their late teens without switching study.
Two distinct stages, not one bracket
13 to 15 and 16 to 18 behave differently on money, media and brand loyalty. Reporting them separately keeps a 13-year-old's habits from being averaged away by an 18-year-old's.
Where their attention actually goes
Platforms, creators, games, music, sport and streaming, measured weekly rather than assumed from last year's media plan.
Their own money, their own decisions
Income, spending and the purchases teens make without a parent involved, alongside the ones they still influence at home.
Into adulthood with Next Gen Insights
At 19 the story continues in Next Gen Insights, so the arc from age 3 to age 30 is unbroken.
Gen Alpha insights
Generation Alpha, tracked since they were born.
Most Gen Alpha research began when the label did. Ours began in 2017, when the oldest of them were three, which means we are not describing a generation from the outside, we have been asking them the same questions for nine years.
The whole cohort, not a slice
Gen Alpha spans roughly ages 3 to 16 today, and every one of those years sits inside Kids Insights. No gaps to fill from a second source.
Reported by age, not by label
Generational boundaries move and are argued over. We report by single year of age, so you can draw the line where your business needs it rather than where a definition happens to fall.
Nine years of the same questions
The value of a long run is that change is visible. What Gen Alpha wanted at six can be read against what the next cohort wants at six now.
Where Gen Alpha meets Gen Z
The boundary sits mid-teens. Older teens in Kids Insights are Gen Z, and the story continues into adulthood in Next Gen Insights.
What we measure
A 360° view of a kid's life.
Twenty-eight categories, grouped into ten insight modules, covering everything from what they watched this morning to what they asked a parent to buy.
Entertainment Hub
TV, film, streaming and the content that holds attention.
Play Time
Toys, hobbies, sport and how kids spend their free time.
Digital Behaviours
Devices, platforms, gaming and time spent online.
IP Affinity
Characters, franchises and the properties kids love.
Purchase Power
Pocket money, spending and influence over the household.
Food & Shopper
Brands, snacking, eating out and where families shop.
Social Circles
Friends, creators and who young audiences listen to.
Coverage
Twenty-two markets, one comparable method.
Kids Insights runs in every market we cover, on identical fieldwork, so a global picture and a local one come from the same source.
410
Children surveyed weekly, per market
21,300
Per market, every year
22markets
Global coverage
since2017
Always on, ever since
Latest thinking
What we are seeing in kids and teens.
Published research drawn from the same dataset, free to read.
Article
Why sports fandom starts younger than you think
How football, basketball and live sport capture kids long before the first match.
Play Time Article
Kids, toys and money: the spending power reshaping the toy market
What kids' own money buys, and what the toy aisle now competes with.
Article
Kids and video games: how gaming became a core hobby
Hours played, girl gamers, top titles and why esports viewers are a commercial audience.
Common questions
Kids Insights, answered.
What ages does Kids Insights cover?
Children and teenagers aged 3 to 18, reported by single year of age and grouped into five life stages: pre-schoolers 3 to 5, kids 6 to 9, pre-teens 10 to 12, teens 13 to 15 and older teens 16 to 18.
Does it cover teenagers?
Yes. Teenagers aged 13 to 18 are surveyed within Kids Insights across two distinct life stages, on the same weekly fieldwork and the same questions as younger age groups. There is no separate teen study to buy.
Which generations does it cover?
Generation Alpha and the younger half of Gen Z. Because the study runs continuously and reports by age, the generational boundary moves with the cohort rather than being fixed to a label.
Is this Gen Alpha research?
Yes. Generation Alpha, currently aged roughly 3 to 16, sits entirely within Kids Insights and has been surveyed continuously since 2017, when the oldest of them were three. Because we report by single year of age, you can define the cohort where it suits your business rather than adopting a fixed label.
How often is the data updated?
Every week. Kids Insights is a continuous study, not a periodic wave, so new responses land in the portal without waiting for a report to be published.
How many children are surveyed?
410 a week in each market, 21,300 a year per market, as part of more than one million interviews a year across kids, teens, young adults and parents.
Is the data ethically collected?
Yes. Fieldwork is run with parental consent and age-appropriate survey design, in line with GDPR, GDPR-K and COPPA, and to ESOMAR and MRS standards. See the full methodology.
Start a conversation
What do you need to know about kids and teens?
Tell us the decision you are facing and we will show you where Kids Insights fits.