Almost two thirds of young people watch TV shows and movies with subtitles, YouGov survey finds

More than 60% of 18 to 24-year-olds now use subtitles when watching TV programmes and movies, a new survey from the polling company YouGov has revealed.

The poll of just over 3,600 adults, published on Friday, found 61% of young adults consume content with the accessibility feature turned on, while the majority of the UK public as a whole (65%) watch entertainment with the subtitles switched off.

Despite UK health statistics estimating 40% of 50-year-olds and 71% of 70-year-olds have hearing loss, just over one in 10 of those aged 50-64 turn on the subtitles, rising only to 22% for people aged 65 or over.

Most young people now watch TV with the subtitles on

18-24yr olds: 61%
25-49yr olds: 31%
50-64yr olds: 13%
65+yr olds: 22%https://t.co/5WFFhdcfDB pic.twitter.com/zKvfIzuyj8

— YouGov (@YouGov) February 24, 2023

The YouGov survey is the latest poll to explore subtitles usage in the UK, after one commissioned by the arts captioning charity Stagetext in 2021 found nearly a quarter of the general public watch captioned content at home “all the time”.

Meanwhile the survey of more than 2,000 people found a similar amount (26%) said they have the captions on “some of the time”.

It also revealed that more than two-thirds (67%) of the UK population find it difficult to hear what is happening during a live performance or when watching TV.

Melanie Shape, CEO of Stagetext, said at the time: “We always knew more people use captions than declared needing them, but we are astounded at the scale of use following lockdown.

“These figures prove the demand for captions and that for millions of people, they are a lifeline.  Every one of us knows someone who has the TV on that little bit too loud and would benefit from turning on the subtitles.

The full statistics are available to explore on YouGov’s website.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.