Short answer
Partly, and only where it has been measured. Two datasets support a drift towards neutral: new cars, where white, black, grey and silver have made up roughly four-fifths of production in every global report since 2009, and a Science Museum Group analysis of 7,000 object photographs showing grey rising since the 1800s. Several popular versions of the claim — greyer homes, fashion, logos — have no dataset behind them, and product ranges such as LEGO and crayons have become more colourful, not less.
The phrase gathers several observations into one story: car parks full of white, grey and black cars; phones, laptops and kitchen appliances in silver, black and 'space grey'; interiors photographed in white and greige; and a 2020 Science Museum Group chart in which the colours of everyday objects slide towards grey across two centuries. That chart, shared widely from 2022 under headlines saying the world is literally becoming less colourful, did the most to turn a feeling into a claim. The honest position is that 'everyday colour' is not one thing and has not been measured as one thing. Each domain needs its own evidence, and the strength of that evidence ranges from decades of industry counts to nothing at all.
Cars are the best-measured colour market in the world. DuPont, now Axalta, has published colour popularity reports since 1953, and BASF publishes its own; this site transcribes more than 500 of their figures. They show a car market that was already about 80% neutral in the first worldwide ranking for 2009 and has stayed there, with the leading neutral changing from silver to white to grey. Consumer objects have one serious study: the Science Museum Group's computer-vision analysis of photographs of 7,083 objects, which found grey pixels rising and brown and yellow falling as materials moved from wood and brass to plastic and metal. Film has a peer-reviewed study showing Hollywood films getting darker from 1935 to 2010 — but it measured brightness, not colourfulness.
For interiors, clothing and branding Colourwise found no published measurement of colour over time. The widely repeated claims that homes turned grey in the 2010s, that clothing has lost colour, or that logos have been drained into flat monochrome may be true, but they rest on commentary, trend announcements and selected images. Paint makers and retailers hold sales data that could settle the interiors question and do not publish it by colour family. Secondary coverage of the museum study also added numbers — such as a share of 'monochrome' objects rising to 60% — that do not appear in the original analysis. Until someone measures these domains, the right description is 'unknown', not 'confirmed'.
Not everything is going grey. LEGO's palette grew from five colours in 1958 to more than 110 at its 2004 peak and around 70 in 2022; Crayola's range grew from eight colours in 1903 to 120 by 1998. The museum study itself notes a smaller trend of very saturated colours appearing from the 1960s, with the arrival of coloured plastics. Within cars, BASF reported Europe's chromatic share above 27% in 2021, its highest in two decades, and green growing in every region in 2025. These do not cancel the neutral trend, but they show that the picture varies by domain, and that the availability of colour has grown even where its use in big-ticket objects has not.
| Domain | What was measured or found | Direction | Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cars | 573 published shares from 22 report editions, 2002–2025 | Towards neutral (high and stable since 2009) | strong |
| Consumer objects | c. 1800–2020 (objects grouped in 20-year bands): In photographs of 7,083 everyday objects from 21 categories (clocks, cameras, telephones, lighting, domestic appliances and others), the share of grey pixels rises over time while brown and yellow fall | Towards neutral | moderate |
| Consumer objects | 1960s onwards: The same analysis finds a smaller counter-current: very saturated colours begin to appear among the objects from the 1960s, coinciding with coloured plastics | Towards colour | limited |
| Consumer objects | 1960s–1990s: Within one category, telephones, the analysis shows a colourful period in the 1960s to 1980s followed by a turn to grey and black from the late 1980s | Towards neutral | limited |
| Film | 1935–2010: Across 160 films released between 1935 and 2010, mean frame luminance falls over time: films have become darker, alongside shorter shots and more on-screen motion | No trend data / context | moderate |
| Film | 2000s–2020s: The widely discussed 'orange and teal' look and the impression that recent films and series are more muted are not backed by any published measurement of saturation across a representative sample of titles that Colourwise could find | No trend data / context | limited |
| Toys and product ranges | 1958–2022: LEGO's brick palette grew from a handful of basic colours in 1958 to more than 110 colours in active use at its 2004 peak, was cut to about 60 by 2007, and stood at around 70 in 2022 | Towards colour | moderate |
| Toys and product ranges | 1903–1998: Crayola's crayon range grew from the original box of eight colours in 1903 to a 48-colour assortment by 1949, a 64-colour box in the late 1950s and a first 120-colour assortment in 1998 | Towards colour | moderate |
| Interiors | 1990s–2020s: No published dataset measures the colour of real homes over time | No trend data / context | limited |
| Interiors | 2022–2025: 'Dopamine decor' — rooms using several saturated colours in blocks — was named as an interiors trend in 2022 and was still being written about as current in 2025 | Towards colour | limited |
| Branding and fashion | 2000s–2020s: Claims that logos have 'flattened' and lost colour, or that clothing has become more grey and black, circulate widely, but Colourwise found no peer-reviewed or methodologically documented dataset that measures either over time | No trend data / context | limited |
Each statement is labelled by kind — established fact, a standard’s requirement, observed market data, a convention, or Colourwise’s own interpretation or analysis — with the strength of the evidence behind it.
FactModerate evidence
A Science Museum Group analysis of photographs of 7,083 objects from 21 everyday categories found the share of grey rising over time and brown and yellow falling, which the authors link to a shift from wood to plastic.
Caveat: Photographs of a curated museum collection, not a representative sample of objects made or owned.
Source: Colour & Shape: Using Computer Vision to Explore the Science Museum Group Collection; A little greyer and a bit more rectangular?
Colourwise analysisStrong evidence
In every global car-colour breakdown Colourwise has transcribed from 2009 to 2025, white, black, grey and silver together make up between 76% and 84% of new vehicles.
Based on: Sums of the published white, black, grey and silver shares in each report edition in the vehicle-colour dataset.
Caveat: Global figures before 2009 are not available, so the long-run rise before then is not charted.
Source: Silver Gleams in First-Ever DuPont Global Color Rankings for 2009; 2025 Global Automotive Color Popularity Report (73rd report); BASF Color Report 2025 for Automotive OEM Coatings
FactModerate evidence
Cutting and colleagues measured 160 English-language films released from 1935 to 2010 and found that mean frame luminance decreased over time.
Caveat: Luminance is brightness, not saturation; the study says nothing directly about films becoming less colourful.
Source: Quicker, faster, darker: Changes in Hollywood film over 75 years
FactModerate evidence
LEGO's colour palette grew from a handful of colours in 1958 to more than 110 in use in 2004, before being cut to about 60 in 2007 and growing to around 70 by 2022.
Caveat: Counts colours offered, not the colour mix of bricks produced.
Colourwise interpretationLimited evidence
The evidence supports a drift towards neutral colour in cars and in manufactured objects; it does not yet support the broader claim that the everyday world as a whole has lost colour.
Based on: Colourwise's reading of the domain-by-domain evidence on this page: two domains with data pointing towards neutral, several with none, and product ranges pointing the other way.
Caveat: Would change if measured data emerged for interiors, clothing or branding.
Reviewed 29 September 2026. Colourwise summarises its sources in its own words and does not reproduce standards text or proprietary colour data. Spotted an error? Tell us.