How much of your jewellery don't you wear?
There's nothing quite like a bit of bling to add some sparkle to your outfit, but which piece to wear? Come on, we know you have plenty of it.
In fact, new research shows just how much jewellery women have lurking in the wardrobe, a whole £31,000 worth.
More staggering is the fact that we only wear a third of it.
According to the results, £252.30 was revealed to be the average annual jewellery spend of women across the UK. In contrast, men claimed to spend just £8.20 on jewellery purchases for themselves in the average year; with ‘jewellery’ for male respondents outlined as watches, cuff links, necklaces and similar attire specifically for men.
With this in mind, women across the UK therefore spend an average of £16,349.04 in a lifetime on jewellery purchases. In contrast, men spend just £498.56.
Those taking part were also asked to estimate, on average, how often they were gifted jewellery items; revealed to be as ‘once per year’, on average for the women taking part. Their male counterparts claimed to receive a jewellery gift once every 3 years, on average.
When asked to estimate the individual cost of the last three jewellery items they had received as gifts (excluding engagement or wedding rings), the average estimate cost amongst women was revealed to be ‘£232.00’; therefore meaning that, in a lifetime, women are gifted £15,033.60 worth of jewellery. In total, this would mean that the average woman accumulates a jewellery collection worth £31,382.64 in their life.
Men, in contrast, estimated the last three jewellery items they had received had an average individual cost of £91.20; meaning that men are gifted £1,848.32 worth of jewellery in a lifetime. In total, this means that the average man in the UK accumulates £2,346.32 worth of jewellery in a lifetime.
When asked to estimate how much of their current jewellery collection they had actually worn, the average answer amongst female respondents was revealed to be ‘34%’; compared to ‘72%’ for the men taking part.
Calculated over a lifetime, this would therefore mean that women waste £20,712.55 on unworn jewellery (either purchased for themselves or gifted to them); whereas men waste just £656.97
Ali O’Neill, Head of Product at comparejewellery.com, commented on the results:
“Jewellery is a £2.52 billion business here in the UK, and whether cheap or pricey, is purchased by women and men for all occasions. Cheaper high street jewellery has particularly exploded in popularity recent years, with women able to purchase a new pair of earrings or necklace on a regular basis, simply because there are affordable options out there. However, we wanted to look into how much this adds up to in a lifetime- and to see how much is wasted on unworn jewellery is shocking!
“It’s inevitable that you won’t get round to wearing everything in your wardrobe, but in order to avoid wasting such a huge amount of money on jewellery that lies forgotten in a draw, people should really think about the value of what they’re buying”