Knowledge: articles on how to talk to people aged 50+ in Poland. Figures with sources are in the Data section.
Grandpa with a cane does not exist. What 50+ consumers in Poland really do
Type the word “senior” into a stock photo library and you get a man with a walking stick on a park bench. He has been sitting there for twenty years. They don't even change his pigeons. I checked in the numbers who he really is.
The picture of the 50+ consumer as a passive, non-digital “senior” does not match the data. There are 14.9 million people over 50 in Poland (Statistics Poland, GUS, as of the end of 2025). According to the study “Starszaki. Potencjały wieku” (“The Older Ones. The potential of age”) by the Polish research agency IQS, about 70 percent of people aged 50–64 are in paid work, and 93 percent of people aged 66+ use online banking on their own.
Where did grandpa with a cane come from?
From a stock photo library.
Someone once put him in a presentation. Someone else copied it. A third person turned him into a campaign. And so grandpa sits on that bench, even though there are 14.9 million people over fifty in Poland and not one of them applied for the casting.
In July, Wirtualnemedia.pl, a Polish media industry news site, gave him a proper send-off in a piece about breaking the spell of the myth. I am adding a few numbers of my own, because there is one problem with grandpa.
He does not exist.
What do 50+ consumers really do?
They work. About 70 percent of people aged 50 to 64 are economically active.
They pay by phone. 93 percent of people aged 66+ handle online banking on their own, and 87 percent shop online.
And they have no intention of leaving the internet. 21 percent of people aged 66+ would like to cut themselves off from it. Among forty-year-olds, 30 percent. So it turns out it is the forty-year-old who has had enough of the smartphone. Grandpa is only just getting going.
Source: IQS, „Starszaki. Potencjały wieku”, via wirtualnemedia.pl.
people over 50 in Poland, Statistics Poland 2025
of people aged 66+ use online banking on their own
of people aged 50+ declare attachment to specific brands
Are 50+ consumers loyal to brands?
Rubbish.
Between 15 and 17 percent of people in this group declare attachment to specific brands. The rest compare, read labels and check prices in three shops. Anyone who remembers ration cards for sugar does not overpay out of sentiment.
For a brand this is good news, although it sounds like bad news. A customer who is not attached to anyone can be persuaded. You just have to start talking to them first.
Can this group be reached without the stereotype?
In the same study, IQS checked which online creators people over fifty know. 20 percent of women aged 50+ know Mądra Babcia (“Wise Grandma”).
Mądra Babcia is me.
I am not saying this to show off. All right, a little bit. I am saying it because it proves you can reach this group without the cane and without the bench. The men have not discovered us yet: 6 percent of men aged 50+ know me. I am working on it.
All it takes is to speak to them as to an adult who has a bank account, an opinion on every subject, a job or grandchildren to look after, and less and less patience for ads that do not see them at all.
Sources
Statistics Poland (GUS), „Ludność. Stan i struktura oraz ruch naturalny w przekroju terytorialnym” [“Population. Size and structure and vital statistics by territorial division”], as of 31 December 2025, table 1 (14.9 million people over 50; the age groups were summed by Silver TV) - stat.gov.pl
IQS, report „Starszaki. Potencjały wieku” [“The Older Ones. The potential of age”] (cohorts 50–65 and 66+) - grupaiqs.pl
Kinga Walczyk, „Odczarowanie mitu »dziadka z laseczką«. Odkrywamy marketingowy potencjał Silverów” [“Breaking the spell of the ‘grandpa with a cane’ myth. Discovering the marketing potential of Silvers”], wirtualnemedia.pl, 15 July 2026 (source for the IQS results on work, banking, online shopping, brand attachment and recognition of creators) - wirtualnemedia.pl
Apart from the size of the group, we know the IQS results from the write-up in wirtualnemedia.pl. The report page does not give the method or the sample size. IQS puts the 50+ group at 14.7 million people; we give the newer Statistics Poland figure.
Quick answers
How many people over 50 live in Poland?
According to Statistics Poland (GUS), 14.9 million at the end of 2025, which is 39.9 percent of the population.
Do people aged 66+ use online banking?
Yes. According to the IQS study “Starszaki. Potencjały wieku”, quoted by wirtualnemedia.pl, 93 percent of people aged 66+ do so on their own, and 87 percent shop online.
Are 50+ consumers loyal to brands?
Only to a small extent. Between 15 and 17 percent of people aged 50+ declare attachment to specific brands, according to the same IQS study.
CEO of Silver TV, known online as Mądra Babcia (“Wise Grandma”). Speaker at I Love Marketing, a Polish marketing conference, where she talks about communicating with the 50+ generation.
silver-marketing.pl is published by Silver TV — internet television for viewers aged 50+ in Poland, with its own formats and a community on four platforms.
Formats for brands