Crafting is a familiar part of everyday life, from baking and drawing to sewing, knitting, model making, and pottery. The Hobbycraft 2025 Power of Making Report records participation, motivations, learning routes, and barriers among respondents, while U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data provides a separate view of time and spending. Together, the figures show both the reach of creative hobbies and the different ways people make room for them.
Contents
- How many people craft
- Crafting and reported wellbeing
- Popular crafts and emerging interests
- Where and with whom people craft
- Children, screens, and family barriers
- How people learn creative skills
- Time and spending measures
How many people craft
The Hobbycraft 2025 Power of Making Report says 44% of respondents craft. A further 7% do not currently craft but would like to, indicating that interest extends beyond current participation. The report also finds that 25% of people craft weekly or monthly, while 15% craft weekly.
Weekly participation varies across selected groups and regions. Among respondents, 21% of women engage in arts and crafts weekly, compared with 10% of men. The highest reported regional figure is in the North East of England, where 21% craft weekly. The lowest figures listed for the regions are 12% in London and 12% in Yorkshire. These are survey results for the populations and categories reported by Hobbycraft; they are not a measure of every crafting activity in the United Kingdom.
The report also identifies a higher weekly figure among people with mental health problems: 29% craft weekly. That statistic describes participation within the group named in the report. It does not, by itself, establish why the participation rate differs between groups.
Crafting and reported wellbeing
The Hobbycraft 2025 Power of Making Report includes several self-reported outcomes among crafters. About 8.8 million Brits use arts and crafts to actively improve their mental health. Within the report’s crafting responses, 59% feel a real sense of achievement, 53% report an improved mood, and 48% report reduced stress. A smaller share, 21%, report boosted confidence.
These figures describe what respondents say they experience or use crafting for. They should be read as reported associations and personal outcomes, rather than as clinical estimates or proof that crafting produces a particular mental-health result for everyone. The report’s 29% weekly participation figure among people with mental health problems provides context about activity levels, but it does not measure treatment, diagnosis, or changes over time.
The connection between creative activity and children’s development is also prominent in the same report. Eighty-eight percent agree that creative activities are vital for children’s development. Thirty-eight percent strongly agree that children do not spend enough time on creative activities, rising to 44% among people who have experienced mental health problems. Overall, 80% of adults agree that children should spend more time on creative activities, while 6% disagree.
Popular crafts and emerging interests
The most popular activity in the Hobbycraft 2025 Power of Making Report is baking, practiced by 43% of respondents. Art follows at 31%, then sewing at 20%. Knitting is practiced by 15%, crochet by 14%, model making by 13%, and paper crafting by 11%.
The category mix changes by gender in two examples reported by Hobbycraft. Model making is reported by 27% of men and 5% of women. Sewing is reported by 30% of women and 4% of men. These comparisons describe the survey’s reported participation rates for those activities; they do not rank people’s skill levels or the amount of time spent on each craft.
Pottery shows a difference between current practice and stated interest. Fifteen percent of adults would like to take up pottery, while 6% currently practice it. Six percent say The Great Pottery Throw Down inspired their crafting habits. The figures suggest a sizeable gap between present participation and desired participation, but the report does not quantify how many interested adults later begin pottery.
Television programmes are among the influences named in the report. The Great British Bake Off has influenced the crafting habits of 15% of respondents, followed by The Repair Shop at 10%, The Great British Sewing Bee at 9%, and The Great Pottery Throw Down at 6%. Portrait Artist of the Year is listed at 3%. These are reported influence figures, not audience-size measurements.
| Craft or influence | Reported share |
|---|---|
| Baking practice | 43% |
| Art practice | 31% |
| Sewing practice | 20% |
| Knitting practice | 15% |
| Adults interested in taking up pottery | 15% |
| Crochet practice | 14% |
| Model-making practice | 13% |
| Paper-crafting practice | 11% |
| Current pottery practice | 6% |
Where and with whom people craft
Crafting is primarily a home-based solo activity in the Hobbycraft 2025 Power of Making Report. Seventy-nine percent prefer solo crafting at home. That preference reaches 85% among 18- to 29-year-olds and 85% among women. The figures describe preferred setting, not necessarily exclusive behavior: a person may prefer crafting alone and also craft with other people at different times.
Eighteen percent enjoy arts and crafts at home with a partner, and 6% craft at home with other adults. Fourteen percent like to pursue hobbies and crafts at home with their children. Social settings are less frequently selected: 10% like arts and crafts with friends in a social setting, 6% prefer informal group settings, and 6% prefer a formal class or workshop.
The pattern gives a useful picture of creative everyday living. Home provides the main setting, while partners, children, friends, informal groups, and formal workshops each represent smaller but distinct ways of participating. Because the report presents preferences as separate percentages, they should not be added together as though they were mutually exclusive categories.
Screen time is another relevant preference in the survey. Seventy-three percent of adults want to reduce their screen time. The figure is 76% among 18- to 29-year-olds, 75% among 30- to 39-year-olds, and 65% among 40- to 54-year-olds. The report does not state that crafting is the reason for these preferences, so the figures are best read alongside crafting participation rather than treated as a direct substitution measure.
Children, screens, and family barriers
Parents report several obstacles to crafting with children. The most common listed barrier is time constraints, cited by 27% of parents. A child’s lack of interest is cited by 24%, while the cost of materials and a child’s preference for screen time are each cited by 23%.
Other barriers are less common but still measurable. Fourteen percent cite concerns about mess, 9% are uncertain about equipment or materials, and 8% cite a lack of creative skills among parents. Seven percent cite parents’ enjoyment as a barrier. The report also says 71% of parents need more help encouraging their children to take part in arts and crafts.
Support for formal recognition has increased in the comparison supplied by Hobbycraft. Support for putting arts and crafts on school curriculums rose from 53% in 2018 to 80% in 2025. The 2025 figure is 85% among 18- to 29-year-olds. The two dates measure different survey years, so the comparison should be understood as a reported change in support across the periods, not as a measure of curriculum implementation.
How people learn creative skills
Parents remain an important source of craft learning. Thirty-three percent of crafters overall learned from their parents, and the figure rises to 41% among Millennials. School or college played a role for 30% of respondents. In-person workshops were a learning route for 17%, including 22% of people aged 75 and over.
Online workshops were used by 11% overall and by 14% of 18- to 29-year-olds. The comparison between in-person and online learning is therefore not simply a generational replacement: the report shows different levels of participation by age and route, while also identifying parents and education as important sources of learning.
The learning figures help explain why access can feel personal and practical at the same time. A family tradition may provide an entry point, school or college may introduce a technique, and a workshop may offer structured practice. The Hobbycraft report quantifies these routes but does not provide a measure of the quality or duration of instruction received through each one.
Time and spending measures
The BLS American Time Use Survey reports that participants spent 125 minutes per day on arts and crafts as a hobby in 2024. In the same 2024 measure, hobbies except arts and crafts and collecting took 151 minutes per day. Taking a class for personal interest took 119 minutes, listening to or playing music took 103 minutes, research or homework for a class for personal interest took 96 minutes, and writing for personal interest took 95 minutes.
These BLS figures are minutes per day for participants, not averages across every person in the population. They also cover the United States, whereas the Hobbycraft figures above concern respondents in its report, including United Kingdom-specific regional references. The geographies, survey designs, and measurement categories differ, so the figures should not be combined into one international ranking.
The BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey provides a separate spending view. In 2016, 10.10% of consumer units reported spending on toys, games, arts and crafts, and tricycles. That category is broader than crafting materials alone and should not be interpreted as a dedicated craft-spending rate.
For 2017–2018, annual spending in the category was $38 for consumer units in population areas of 250,000 to 999,999, and $228 in areas with 100,000 to 249,999 residents. The reported figure was $52 in urban areas of 2,500,000 to 4,999,999 residents and $37 in urban areas of 5,000,000 or more residents. Spending outside urban areas was $34, while spending in all urban areas was $35.
| BLS spending geography or population band | Annual spending, 2017–2018 |
|---|---|
| Areas with 100,000–249,999 residents | $228 |
| Urban areas with 2,500,000–4,999,999 residents | $52 |
| Areas with 250,000–999,999 residents | $38 |
| Urban areas with 5,000,000 or more residents | $37 |
| All urban areas | $35 |
| Outside urban areas | $34 |
The spending observations are historical BLS measures for 2016 and 2017–2018. They are not current prices, forecasts, or estimates of what a household needs to begin crafting. Read alongside the 2024 time-use figures, they show that participation, time, and spending are separate measures: each answers a different question about how creative hobbies fit into daily life.