Ilford film users survey 2025 published

[250swb]

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Is film dead or dying, or is film still on the up? Here is Ilford's survey of 14,000 photographers made at the end of 2024 and just published

https://www.ilfordphoto.com//film-photographers-survey-2024-results/

 

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[FrozenInTime]

The peak demographic of 25-34 years must be good for the long term viability of film.

[LocalHero1953]

Pity they give no indication of trends over time. Has Ilford run the same survey previously?

[250swb]

I don't know if Ilford have done the survey before but I'd say things look very healthy. The You-Tubers are clearly doing an important job and the survey shows film photography for most of those who did the survey isn't just a flash in the pan.

[chris_livsey]

2018 Survey https://www.ilfordphoto.com/ilford-photo-global-film-users-survey-the-results-are-in/

There was a 2022 but can't find the results and this one links to the presumably 2014 one but the link is dead on the Ilford site.

Ilford Film User Survey | byThom Filmbodies | Thom Hogan

My "friend" Grok 3 who has better search capability than I says: 

 Ilford’s surveys are valuable but may have bias toward their products (e.g., Ilford, Kentmere, Harman films), as acknowledged in the 2024 results. The data reflects a passionate niche community, but participation is likely skewed toward active film enthusiasts.
 Ilford’s regular survey cadence (roughly every 2–4 years)

Beyond 2024, 2022, 2019, 2018, and 2014, no other film user surveys are explicitly mentioned in the sources. Ilford may have conducted smaller or internal surveys, but these are not publicly documented.

I assume GROK cannot access sites without permissions as it points to an Ilford web page archive of results but that page is marked - Does not exist like the Thom link.

It does suggest and offers to do that to trawl forums, and yes this forum is mentioned, for results of previous surveys.

 

 

 

[Martin B]

From my own understanding - without any statistically relevant numbers - it seems that the film renaissance took kind of a bell-shape progression. More people started venturing into film around 2015 moving forward which kind of peaked from what I have seen in 2019 before the pandemic before prices for film cameras and film itself took off significantly. Since then I believe the film resurgence starting losing the momentum quite a bit again. It is still kept up going with new Instax film cameras and films which attracts a lot of youngsters. But less are appealed by 35 mm film rolls for > $9 for each for sure! I wonder if sales for films have decreased to an extent that it is visible for companies like Ilford or Kodak Alaris.