Study reveals the hobbies Brits want to try in 2024

Photography is the hobby most Brits would love to try if money were no object (33%).
Almost three in five (57%) Brits would not take up illustration as their hobby, and 19% concerned that they would be bad at it.
The most common reason Brits don’t pursue hobbies is that they don’t have the time to keep it up.
The full data set and survey data is available to view here.

Hobbies are an important way to express our creativity, and those who undertake hobbies are less likely to experience stress or depression1.

However, with one in six Brits cutting out hobbies to save cash2, many Brits may be sacrificing their creative, feel-good pastimes.

With this in mind, Adobe Express conducted a survey of 2,000 UK adults in order to find out which creative hobbies Brits would most like to try in 2024 if money were no object, and their reasons behind not giving new hobbies a go despite wanting to do so.

To encourage more people to try new hobbies, the experts at Adobe Express also shared their tips on giving creative hobbies a go, without splashing too much cash.

The top ten hobbies Brits would love to try, if money were no object

Rank	Creative hobby	Percentage who would consider undertaking if money were no object
1	Photography	33%
2	Drawing / painting / scrapbooking	33%
3	Upcycling	32%
4	Playing an instrument	32%
5	Dancing	30%
6	Pottery / sculpting	30%
7	Soap / candle making	28%
8	Cooking / baking	28%
9	Video creation and editing	27%
10	Jewellery making	27%

The full data set and survey data is available to view here.

Adobe Express found that photography ranks as the hobby that most Brits would want to try, if money were no object, with a third (33%) of UK adults saying they’d love to try it.

However, as well as being the creative hobby that most would like to try, photography was also believed to be too expensive by more respondents than any other hobby (12%).

A further third of Brits (33%) were also eager to try drawing, painting, or scrapbooking, according to the findings, with just 3% stating that the hobby is too expensive.

The hobby Brits would least like to sample was illustration, with almost six in ten (57%) stating it was not something they’d spend their spare time doing. The number one reason for not taking up this new hobby was fear of being embarrassed or not good enough (top reason for 19% of respondents).

Most common reasons Brits won’t begin creative hobbies

Adobe Express found that the most common top reason amongst Brits for not trying new hobbies is because they do not have the time to keep it up (16% of respondents), and with recent studies suggesting Brits only get 46 minutes of free time a day3, it is no wonder this is a concern among many respondents.

Lack of time was the top response for several hobbies, including: gardening, knitting/crocheting, woodwork, soap/candle making, pottery, jewellery making, and playing an instrument.

Sadly, almost one in six (14%) Brits listed ‘fear or embarrassment or not being good enough’ as their top reason for partaking. This was listed as the number one reason for not taking up dancing as a new hobby.

Adobe Express share their tips on taking up creative hobbies, reducing the costs, as well as finding free time: “Creative hobbies are vital for our mental health, and healthy cognitive function, but when expenses or time factors get in the way, it can be hard to fit these into day to day life. There are, however, ways around this, such as taking the time to find cheap alternatives.

“If your ideal hobby is photography for example, finding low cost ways of practising and pursuing this on the side whilst saving up for any equipment you may want can help. For example, taking scenic snaps on your smartphone, utilising free software like Adobe Express, getting inspiration from photography blogs online, and practising photographing different scenes, objects, and people.

“If you struggle to find spare time for your hobbies, consider slightly adjusting your routine, for example, if you tend to finish work, eat dinner, and then relax on the sofa watching TV/scrolling social media, you could instead swap 30 minutes of this time to invest in your hobby.”

Methodology:

Adobe Express sought to find out which creative hobbies Brits currently undertake, would/would not consider undertaking, as well as their reasons for this.
To do this, they conducted a survey of 2,000 UK adults, asking questions such as ‘Which of the following creative hobbies, if any, do you currently undertake OR would be interested in taking up, if money was no object?’.
Data was broken down at city-level too, to reveal each city’s most popular hobbies, hobbies they’d like to try, and reasons for not trying them.
Additionally, utilising average prices for component and necessary parts, Adobe Express estimated the average yearly costs of picking up some of the most popular hobbies, including recommendations on how to keep costs low.
The survey data was collected April 2024, and is accurate as of then.

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