New Year statistics are starting to roll in!
A year again, the time of renewal, a time for new beginnings. If you’re looking for an opportunity to make a change, now is the time.
- Kiribati and Tonga celebrate New Year first in the world
- 65% of Americans spend at least $50 on New Year’s Eve
- 60% of Americans plan to celebrate New Year’s Eve with family or friends
- 360+ million glasses of sparkling wine are drunk each New Year’s Eve
- 36 days is the average period Americans keep their New Year resolutions
- London is one of the world’s most expensive cities to celebrate New Year
- Prague is the cheapest destination for a New Year’s night out
- 54% of Brits will set New Year’s resolutions in 2022
- 31% of Britons give up their New Year resolutions by the end of January
Celebrating the end of the year and the dawn of a new one is something that happens almost globally. Plus, like Christmas, New Year is an important income-generating period annually for the retail industry. There may be a recession and high inflation in the US and the UK, but the odds of people not celebrating New Year when 2023 rolls around are almost nil.
Join us as we examine some history, traditions and statistics for New Year in the UK and the US.
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A Short History Of New Year
In the west which follows a Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Eve also goes by the name of Old Year’s Day (31 December). The evening of the 31 is usually celebrated with a night out of food and drinks before seeing the New Year in by watching firework displays and toasting friends and family.
In ancient times in Babylon and Mesopotamia, the ancients tended to celebrate New Year roughly around March 21 on the calendar of our modern times. Celebrations could take up to 10 days and were marked by special rituals and ceremonies.
Over the centuries, the calendar was no longer in sync with the sun. In 46 BC, the Roman emperor, Julius Caesar, introduced the Julian calendar, which resembled our modern Gregorian calendar more closely. Most countries around the world today use the Gregorian calendar.
The first day of the new year now fell on 1 January. It was named after the Roman god, Janus who has two faces, one looking back and the other looking forward to the future.
It was during this time that New Year became associated with exchanging gifts and holding celebrations.
New Year Celebrations Around The World
Kiribati and Tonga in the Pacific is the first place that celebrates New Year in the world. They celebrate New Year at around 10 am GMT on December 31st every year.
New Zealand is next, along with Australia and Japan.
The US island in the western Pacific, Baker Island, is the last place on earth that will enter 2023 at 12pm GMT on January 1.
New Year is usually celebrated with huge and expensive fireworks displays in many international cities. These include Paris, London, Sydney, New York, Dubai, Rio de Janeiro and Honolulu.
New Year In Numbers
Starting in the US, 65% of Americans spend at least $50 on New Year’s Eve food and drinks, according to polls. While only 24% plan to attend public events, more than 50% plan to celebrate New Year with friends and family.
A staggering 360+ million glasses of sparkling wine or champagne are drunk each New Year’s Eve.
Turning to the UK, many Britons would rather go abroad for New Year, particularly Londoners, which is said to be more expensive than Paris and New York.
A poll by Travelex cites London as one of the world’s most expensive cities to celebrate New Year, with locals and tourists forking out an average of £336.14 per person on December 31. This would give you a drink, a bottle of champagne, an evening meal, and a ticket to watch fireworks.
The survey listed Prague in the Czech Republic as the cheapest destination at around £42.90 for the night out.
A different survey stated that 30% of Brits fancied spending New Year in New York where their average spend would be £118.60 per person.
The Travelex poll also found that men spent more on New Year’s Eve at around £200, while women spent much less at £169.
Let’s turn to resolutions which are notoriously difficult to keep up for the whole year.
How Widespread Is The Practise Of Making New Year Resolutions?
A staggering 54% of Brits will take a New Year’s resolution in 2022, with a quarter of those being health-related. A whopping 73% of Londoners will be making New Year’s resolutions this year.
More women make resolutions at 55%, while around 52% of men will make a New Year’s resolution in 2022.
In younger population groups, 87% of generation Z will be making resolutions this New Year. It appears that the percentage of people taking resolutions drops with age as the practice drops to 78% for Millennials, 51% for Generation X, and 29% for Baby Boomers.
A mere 17% of the silent generation will set a resolution.
With the percentage of people making New Year’s resolutions being quite high, let’s take a closer look and unpack some of the reasons for this.
How Long Do New Year Resolutions Last?
According to research by the British retail banking group, TSB, there were one in three (around 31%) people had given up on their New Year resolution by the end of January.
By the time March came, the figure rises to four in 10 people or 46% of people who had given up on their resolutions. The average American sticks to their resolutions for around 36 days.
UK residents spend an estimated average of £187 on New Year’s resolutions, often which they seem to give up on quite quickly.
Popular Resolutions In The UK
The majority of resolutions are health-related, such as joining a gym, work-out kits, buying a bicycle, buying fitness videos or apps, or buying a pair of running shoes. Other popular resolutions for Brits are plans for a new diet or eating plan, buying juicers or blenders, and buying healthier food and supplements.
The remaining resolutions centred around learning a new skill or a new hobby. But on average, only 9-12% of people stick to their New Year resolutions.
With recession and inflation hitting Brits hard in late 2022, perhaps better financial management will become a popular resolution going forward into 2023.
Same Tradition But Different Practises Around The World
Most countries which celebrate New Year start festivities on the evening of 31 December (Old Year’s/New Year’s Eve) and continue into the early hours of New Year’s Day.
In Spain and many Spanish-speaking countries, revellers swallow 12 grapes, which symbolise their wishes and hopes for the coming 12 months of the year.
Other countries often eat dishes with legumes, which are said to look like coins, bringing future financial riches. For example, Italians use lentils and Americans use black-eyed peas in the Southern states.
Pigs are symbolic of prosperity and progress in many cultures and roast and cooked pork appear on New Year tables in Portugal, Hungary, Cuba, and Austria among other countries.
Rounded cakes and pastries are baked in the Netherlands, Greece, and Mexico while some Scandinavia countries (Sweden and Norway) feature a tart or flan with a nut hidden in the middle. Whoever gets the nut will have a year of good fortune.
Other common traditions include singing songs and watching fireworks. Britons sing Auld Lang Syne while millions of Americans watch the iconic giant ball drop in Times Square, New York, either on-site or on their television screens.
Celebrating New Year, be it New Year’s Eve or the whole of New Year’s Day, is an annual milestone in your 20s and 30s but does appear to become less important as the years pass by.
While many old timers have given up on staying up to see the New Year in, the practises and traditions around this annual milestone are here to stay.
Whether you plan to carry fireballs in Scotland or join Danish relatives in throwing old glasses and plates at friends’ doors, the 2023 New Year is bound to be a good one.
Just remember to limit those resolutions. Happy New Year!
Nathan has always been captivated by numbers and patterns. With a Master’s degree in Statistics, he’s honed his skills to decipher complex data sets and discern market trends.
Over the past decade, Nathan has worked with various firms compiling and analyzing industry spending figures to forecast market movements.