THE RAREST SIGNS OF SUCCESS
Exploring the aspiration gap
THE RAREST SIGNS OF SUCCESS
Exploring the aspiration gap
THE RAREST SIGNS OF SUCCESS
Exploring the aspiration gap
Mind the gap
We have identified what people in the UK are most likely to see as the key signs of success – among them home ownership, pensions and savings, a well-paid job – but to what extent do people feel like they have attained these milestones? We call the gap between the proportion who see different statuses and possessions as a success marker and the proportion who have achieved them “the aspiration gap.” It reveals a great deal about what people want in the UK today.
Again, the aspiration gap is widest when it comes to property – but in this instance it is about having a second home. Travelling business or first class when flying and having a high-paying job are also in the top three, closely followed by having a good pension for retirement and sending children to private school. The themes for the UK population overall are aligned with the overall signs of success: good finances, security and investing in future generations. We see this too when we focus on the youngest generations. Just like older groups, the widest gap between aspiration and reality for 16-24s is home ownership: just one in twenty of this age group say they own their own home, while six in ten view it as a sign of success. This should be a warning sign for future thwarted aspirations, as this group are likely to find it even harder than Millennials to make this dream reality.
But what does the gap look like for society’s richest members? When we examine individuals in households earning at least £100,000 per year we see some similar themes but also very different attitudes to work. Firstly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this group are more likely to own, or have a lot more, statuses and possessions than they are to see them as a sign of success. This includes traditional material possessions like luxury and designer goods, foreign holidays, stocks and shares.
“Travelling business or first class when flying and having a high-paying job are also in the top three, closely followed by having a good pension for retirement and sending children to private school.”
But they display a very different attitude to work. This group are far more likely than the overall UK population to say they have a high-paying job (40% versus 8%), that they reply to emails outside of working hours (45% versus 26%) or that they work long hours (31% versus 19%), which means that having a higher paying job is not at the top of their aspiration gap. Instead, their dreams are of stopping work: the top two aspirational factors for this group are retiring from work early and not needing to work.
Post-material aspirations?
One of the key trends in this data is the democratisation of physical possessions. The things which once might have been considered a marker of success and appear in some of our other analyses, such as a top-of-the-range smartphone, dishwashers, microwaves and widescreen TVs are all at the bottom of the aspiration gap. This indicates that a significantly larger number of people report owning them than consider them a sign of success. Also at the bottom of the league are subscription content services and taking work calls during non-working hours. This is true even for the youngest age group – while 16-24s display a gap between aspiration and reality for more statuses and possessions than the UK population overall, dishwashers, microwaves, widescreen TVs and TV subscription services still fall to the bottom and are more likely to be owned by this group than seen as a sign of success.
The main standout from this pattern is the car, which is the only physical possession to feature in the top ten of the aspiration gap (although a hot tub or pool ranked eleventh). Forty-four per cent of the UK public see having a new or top-of-the-range car as a clear sign of success while just twelve per cent claim to own one. Among the high-income household group, a new car ranks slightly lower – although this is understandable as a third of this group already own one. However, they are still seen as aspirational objects and a symbol of elite choice in future mobility. Although they are slightly lower in the ranking compared to electric cars.
“The things which once might have been considered a marker of success and appear in some of our other analyses, such as a top-of-the-range smartphone, dishwashers, microwaves and widescreen TVs are all at the bottom of the aspiration gap.”
Reflections
This aspiration gap data further highlights some perennial features of success that feature across this report: we see common focuses on finance and homeownership across UK society; physical possessions have become broadly commonplace and less aspirational; the definitions of success shift based on what people have achieved in life so far. This has clear implications for those seeking to project an image of aspiration: aside from the car, the signs of success are less about physical possessions and more about personal capability and autonomy, especially in the financial sphere. People’s appearance and possessions are now less reliable indicators of how successful they feel compared to the past.
The final thing to consider is how important these aspirations are to people. We have asked what people take as signs of others’ success, and what people own themselves. But we have not asked whether those signs are important to them personally. In other articles we explore the importance of an aspirational appearance to the UK public – are they strivers or satisficers – and this attitudinal approach to aspiration is an important additional layer to understand in detail.