The tooth fairy leaves an average of £3.34 per tooth, putting estimates of the size of the tooth fairy industry at a whopping £450 million, according to recent research from Halifax.
This means kids rake in £66.80 once they’ve lost all of their 20 milk teeth. Better still, over one in 10 (12%) lucky kids get at least £5 per tooth, or £100 for all of their milk teeth. There are stark regional contrasts – kids in Greater London get almost double the cash compared to kids in the North West of England (£4.84 vs £2.65 per tooth – or £96.80 vs £53 for all their milk teeth).
Kids are getting less money from the tooth fairy than their parents did (£3.34 vs £5.76) – at this rate, the tooth fairy won’t be giving anything in 2060[2]. To add to the gloom, just under one in five (18%) of parents say they were never visited by the tooth fairy when they were children.
Giles Martin, Head of Savings at Halifax, said: “Kids shouldn’t bank on the tooth fairy forever. These surprising results show the going rate is getting lower. At this rate, they’ll be worthless 40 years from now, paving the way for the extinction of the tooth fairy as soon as 2060.
“The good news is that two thirds of children save the money they get from the tooth fairy, either in a piggy bank or a savings account. Just like regular pocket money, it’s a great opportunity to get kids into the savings habit from a young age."
Children aren’t missing out completely though – research earlier this year revealed that pocket money had reached a nine-year high at £7.04 a week, with eight in 10 (80%) saving their pocket money in a piggy bank.
But just under one in 10 (9%) parents admit raiding their kids’ piggy bank for the tooth fairy – parents in Greater London are almost four times as likely to do this than parents in the North East, Yorkshire or Humber (19% vs 5%).
Kids stop believing in the tooth fairy by their eighth birthday, which is younger than the age their parents stopped believing (eight years and 10 months). However, most kids (92%) who don’t believe in the tooth fairy take the cash anyway.
Dentists beware: when they do take the cash, a third (30%) of children use it to buy sweets. Two thirds (69%) save some of the money and almost half (43%) buy toys.
