Young Bahamians online: do Gen Z customers pay differently?

Which ages are Gen Z, millennials and Gen X?

Generations are named by year of birth, and the lines between them are a convention. The Pew Research Center, a US research organization, counts people born from 1965 to 1980 as Gen X and people born from 1981 to 1996 as millennials. Everyone born from 1997 onward is Gen Z.

By those lines, Gen X turn 46 to 61 in 2026 and millennials turn 30 to 45. The oldest Gen Z adults turn 29 in 2026. Pew has set no end year for Gen Z, so the children after them, often called Gen Alpha, have no agreed start.

Bahamian surveys count people by age band, not by generation. In this article, “younger customers” means adults under 35. That covers the adults of Gen Z and the younger millennials.

Half of everyone in The Bahamas, children included, was younger than 35.3 at the end of 2025, according to United Nations figures published by DataReportal. So many of the adult customers a business will serve in the coming years are children and teenagers today.

Are younger Bahamians more online than older ones?

Only slightly, up to the age of 65. The 2022 census asked everyone aged 3 and over whether they had internet access, and 92.3% did. Every age group from 10 to 64 fell between 92.3% and 94.7%. Teenagers aged 15 to 19 were the highest. People aged 65 and over were the clear exception, at 80.4%.

So a customer in their twenties and a customer in their fifties are about equally likely to be online. The group a business can still miss online is people aged 65 and over. About one in six of them told the census they had no internet access.

An owner with older customers or staff who are not online can point them to help. DigiLearn Bahamas, the government’s digital skills programme run with the University of The Bahamas and the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute, runs courses for seniors in rounds, including a full-day workshop in New Providence for people aged 60 and over. Its webpage lists the dates of the next round.

The next customers are online already. Children aged 10 to 14 were among the most connected groups at the census and are in their teens now, and the Minister of Education said on 30 August 2026 that a pilot putting laptops or tablets in the hands of students and teachers in selected schools would begin in September 2026. A listing that is wrong today will still be wrong when they start buying, so it is worth fixing now.

For national totals on internet, mobile and social media use, read The Bahamas online in 2026.

Do young Bahamians still pay cash?

Yes, about as often as people aged 35 to 54. In 2023 the Central Bank of The Bahamas asked 1,030 people which way they had paid most often over the previous six months. Cash came first for 46% of adults aged 18 to 34 and for 47% of those aged 35 to 54. A mobile wallet came first for just 1% in each age group.

Household income made a much bigger difference. Cash came first for 55% of people in households earning under $30,000 a year, and for 21% of people in households earning over $60,000. As income rose, cards took cash’s place, debit most of all.

Under 55, household income split how people paid far more than age did.

That survey asked customers, and it does not say why they chose cash. A separate Central Bank survey in 2023 looked at what payments cost. In the published text of a speech in September 2025, the Central Bank’s Governor said it found that micro and small businesses used cash more than larger firms, with “the merchant fee structure” cited as a reason not to take more credit and debit cards. So cash holds on at both ends of a sale: in how many customers choose to pay, and in what taking cards costs a small business.

Younger adults wrote fewer cheques. Just 6% of adults aged 18 to 34 had written one in the past year, against 10% of people aged 35 and over.

They were no more likely to use a wallet app. About seven in ten adults in every age group had used none of the wallet apps the survey listed in the previous six months, and adults aged 35 to 54 were the most likely to have used one. One app on the list was used more by younger adults, and the most-used one more by older adults. So a wallet app on its own is no special draw for younger customers. It is one more way to be paid without cash, for customers of any age.

This is where US figures on how young people pay mislead. In the Federal Reserve’s payments diary for October 2025, US adults under 25 used cash for 6% of their payments, adults aged 25 to 54 for 10% and people aged 55 and over for 19%. In the US, the younger the adult, the less cash. In the Bahamian survey, cash was the most-used way to pay for about as many adults under 35 as adults aged 35 to 54. The two surveys measure payments in different ways, so their levels cannot be set side by side. The pattern is what differs: below the age of 55, younger Bahamians had not moved away from cash.

That picture may change. The Central Bank said in March 2026 that it expects to launch a Fast Payment System, for instant transfers between banks and payment apps, by the first quarter of 2027. Read what the Fast Payment System would mean for you.

For an owner, the Bahamian data gives no reason to stop taking cash because customers are younger. It does support offering at least one way to pay without cash: about half of adults under 55 named a card or a transfer as the way they paid most often. If card fees are the worry, bank transfer details are another way to be paid without cash.

Where do younger customers look for a business?

No Bahamian survey measures this by age. For The Bahamas, only totals for adults exist. Meta’s advertising figures, reported by DataReportal, put Facebook at 73.8% of adults at the end of 2025 and Instagram at 41.0%, counting accounts that advertisers can reach.

The best evidence by age comes from the US. A Pew Research Center survey of US adults in 2025 found Instagram used by 80% of people aged 18 to 29 and by 19% of people aged 65 and over. TikTok followed the same pattern, at 63% and 12%. Facebook was different: a majority of every age group used it, and people aged 30 to 49 used it most, at 80%.

Asking an AI assistant is newer, and in the US it is most common among people in their thirties and early forties, more than among the youngest adults. In a 2026 survey of US adults by BrightLocal, a company that sells local search software, 64% of people aged 30 to 44 had asked an AI tool to recommend a local business in the past year. The figure for people over 60 was 24%. Read what AI assistants read about your business.

Taken with the Bahamian totals, these US figures suggest a Facebook Page (the business page, not a personal profile) reaches the widest range of adults. In the US, younger adults are also far more likely to use Instagram and TikTok. Whichever place a customer checks, your hours, phone number and photos should match.

What this means for your business

• Keep taking cash, and add one way to be paid without it. Under 55, age barely changed how often Bahamians paid cash, and about half named a card or a transfer as the way they paid most often.
• Keep your hours, phone number and photos the same everywhere. Younger and older customers check different places, so each one has to be right.
• Keep a phone line that someone answers. About one in six Bahamians aged 65 and over had no internet access at the last census, and for them a phone call may be the only way to reach you.
• Ask your own customers. National figures describe everyone. Your customers can tell you how they found you and how they would rather pay.

More on how Bahamians buy.

How sure are we?

We are sure of internet access by age. The census counted everyone, in April 2022. It measured access, not how often people went online.

We are fairly sure of how adults under 55 paid. The Central Bank’s survey reached 1,030 people by telephone in 2023, weighted by age, gender and island to figures from the 2010 census. One of its tables is cut off in the published report for people aged 55 and over, so this article does not use that column.