In 2023, the average consumer unit in the United States spent about 9,985 U.S. dollars on food. Americans spent the most on housing, at 25,436 U.S. dollars, reflecting around one third of annual expenditure. The total average U.S. consumer spending amounted to 77,280 U.S. dollars.

Consumer Spending in the United States increased to 16291.80 USD Billion in the first quarter of 2025 from 16273.20 USD Billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Consumer Spending - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

In 2023, the average annual expenditures of consumer units in the United States totaled to 77,280 U.S. dollars. This is an increase from the previous year, when the average annual expenditures of consumer units totaled to 72,967 U.S. dollars.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Total Average Annual Expenditures by Age: from Age 65 to 74 (CXUTOTALEXPLB0408M) from 1984 to 2023 about 65-years +, age, average, expenditures, and USA.

In 2023, the average U.S. consumer unit residing in the northeast U.S. spent about 87,445 U.S. dollars, almost twenty thousand dollars more than those living in the south. The average U.S. consumer spending amounted to 77,280 U.S. dollars.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Total Average Annual Expenditures by Quintiles of Income Before Taxes: Highest 20 Percent (81st to 100th Percentile) (CXUTOTALEXPLB0106M) from 1984 to 2023 about percentile, tax, average, expenditures, income, and USA.

In 2023, a four-person household could be expected to spend about 105,683 U.S. dollars. Interestingly, when there are five or more people in a household, spending declines compared to four-person households. Average annual spending across all consumer units amounted to around 77,280 U.S. dollars.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Total Average Annual Expenditures by Income Before Taxes: $30,000 to $39,999 (CXUTOTALEXPLB0207M) from 1984 to 2023 about tax, average, expenditures, income, and USA.

Key information about United States Household Expenditure per Capita

• United States Annual Household Expenditure per Capita reached 30,912.000 USD in Dec 2023, compared with the last update number of 30,402.917 USD in Dec 2022.
• US Annual Household Expenditure per Capita data is updated yearly, available from Dec 1984 to Dec 2023, with an averaged value of 16,842.400 USD.
• The data reached an all-time high of 30,912.000 USD in Dec 2023 and a record low of 8,451.923 USD in Dec 1984.
• In the latest reports, Retail Sales of US grew 0.967 % YoY in May 2023.

This web map displays a ratio of the average annual household expenditure on "food at home" to "food away from home." Some of the patterns are quite interesting.Red area households spend noticeably more at home, blue area households spend noticeably more away from home. Households in an "average" area tend to spend $1.38 on food at home for every $1.00 on food away from home. Red areas are above this average, and blue areas are below this average. Yellow areas are average.Data is shown at the county, tract and block group levels using consistent colors and classifications. Put this map in your web browser or Esri iPhone/iPad app.There's a very nice visual of consumer expenditures data here.These are just two of the hundreds of variables available in the Esri Consumer Spending database. Esri combined the 2005-2006 Consumer Expenditure Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to estimate current spending patterns. The continuing surveys include a Diary Survey for daily purchases and an Interview Survey for general purchases. The Diary Survey represents record keeping by consumer units for two consecutive weeklong periods. This component collects data on small daily purchases that could be overlooked by the quarterly Interview Survey. The Interview Survey collects expenditure data from consumers in five interviews conducted every three months. Esri integrates data from both surveys to provide a comprehensive database on all consumer expenditures. To compensate for the relatively small survey bases and the variability of single-year data, expenditures are averaged from the 2005–2006 surveys.Esri's 2010 Consumer Spending database details which products and services area consumers buy. Updated annually, the Consumer Spending database contains more than 760 items in 15 categories such as apparel, food, and financial. The database includes information about total dollars spent, the average amount spent by household, and a Spending Potential Index that compares local average product expenditures to the national average.

Across the globe and in the United States, consumers tend to spend a considerable amount of money during specific festivities and seasonal events. During the winter holiday season of 2024, for instance, consumers in the United States expected to spend an average of about *** U.S. dollars per person, making it one of the top U.S. shopping events of the year. That said, the top spot went to the back-to-college season, when average per capita spending was projected to reach nearly ***** U.S. dollars. What do back-to-college shoppers buy? Getting students ready for an academic year at college can be an expensive ordeal in the United States. In addition to paying tuition and rent, it is frequently the first time young adults leave their parents’ homes, which can translate to an array of items needing to be purchased. In 2024, U.S. consumers planned to spend a total of more than ** billion U.S. dollars on back-to-college dorm and/or apartment furnishings. Only five years earlier, planned college furniture spending in the United States stood at less than ***** billion U.S. dollars in total. The impact of inflation on consumption Although consumers consistently spend more money on products and services during specific seasonal events, the wave of inflation that has hit the world in the last couple of years has thrown a wrench into many consumers’ shopping plans. For instance, increasing numbers of holiday shoppers in the United States have been looking for more sales than usual or said they would be buying less expensive gifts.

Abstract

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) program provides a continuous and comprehensive flow of data on the buying habits of American consumers. These data are used widely in economic research and analysis, and in support of revisions of the Consumer Price Index. To meet the needs of users, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces population estimates for consumer units (CUs) of average expenditures in news releases, reports, issues, and articles in the Monthly Labor Review. Tabulated CE data are also available on the Internet and by facsimile transmission (See Section XV. APPENDIX 4). The microdata are available online at http://www/bls.gov/cex/pumdhome.htm. These microdata files present detailed expenditure and income data for the Diary component of the CE for 2002. They include weekly expenditure (EXPD) and annual income (DTBD) files. The data in EXPD and DTBD files are categorized by a Universal Classification Code (UCC). The advantage of the EXPD and DTBD files is that with the data classified in a standardized format, the user may perform comparative expenditure (income) analysis with relative ease. The FMLD and MEMD files present data on the characteristics and demographics of CUs and CU members. The summary level expenditure and income information on the FMLD files permits the data user to link consumer spending, by general expenditure category, and household characteristics and demographics on one set of files. Estimates of average expenditures in 2002 from the Diary survey, integrated with data from the Interview survey, are published in Consumer Expenditures in 2002. A list of recent publications containing data from the CE appears at the end of this documentation. The microdata files are in the public domain and with appropriate credit, may be reproduced without permission. A suggested citation is: "U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, Diary Survey, 2002".

Analysis unit

Consumer Units

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Samples for the CE are national probability samples of households designed to be representative of the total U. S. civilian population. Eligible population includes all civilian noninstitutional persons. The first step in sampling is the selection of primary sampling units (PSUs), which consist of counties (or parts thereof) or groups of counties. The set of sample PSUs used for the 2002 sample is composed of 105 areas. The design classifies the PSUs into four categories: • 31 "A" certainty PSUs are Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA's) with a population greater than 1.5 million. • 46 "B" PSUs, are medium-sized MSA's. • 10 "C" PSUs are nonmetropolitan areas that are included in the CPI. • 18 "D" PSUs are nonmetropolitan areas where only the urban population data will be included in the CPI.

The sampling frame (that is, the list from which housing units were chosen) for the 2002 survey is generated from the 1990 Population Census 100-percent-detail file. The sampling frame is augmented by new construction permits and by techniques used to eliminate recognized deficiencies in census coverage. All Enumeration Districts (ED's) from the Census that fail to meet the criterion for good addresses for new construction, and all ED's in nonpermit-issuing areas are grouped into the area segment frame. To the extent possible, an unclustered sample of units is selected within each PSU. This lack of clustering is desirable because the sample size of the Diary Survey is small relative to other surveys, while the intraclass correlations for expenditure characteristics are relatively large. This suggests that any clustering of the sample units could result in an unacceptable increase in the within-PSU variance and, as a result, the total variance. Each selected sample unit is requested to keep two 1-week diaries of expenditures over consecutive weeks. The earliest possible day for placing a diary with a household is predesignated with each day of the week having an equal chance to be the first of the reference week. The diaries are evenly spaced throughout the year. During the last 6 weeks of the year, however, the Diary Survey sample is supplemented to twice its normal size to increase the reporting of types of expenditures unique to the holidays.

STATE IDENTIFIER Since the CE is not designed to produce state-level estimates, summing the consumer unit weights by state will not yield state population totals. A CU's basic weight reflects its probability of selection among a group of primary sampling units of similar characteristics. For example, sample units in an urban nonmetropolitan area in California may represent similar areas in Wyoming and Nevada. Among other adjustments, CUs are post-stratified nationally by sex-age-race. For example, the weights of consumer units containing a black male, age 16-24 in Alabama, Colorado, or New York, are all adjusted equivalently. Therefore, weighted population state totals will not match population totals calculated from other surveys that are designed to represent state data. To summarize, the CE sample was not designed to produce precise estimates for individual states. Although state-level estimates that are unbiased in a repeated sampling sense can be calculated for various statistical measures, such as means and aggregates, their estimates will generally be subject to large variances. Additionally, a particular state-population estimate from the CE sample may be far from the true state-population estimate.

INTERPRETING THE DATA Several factors should be considered when interpreting the expenditure data. The average expenditure for an item may be considerably lower than the expenditure by those CUs that purchased the item. The less frequently an item is purchased, the greater the difference between the average for all consumer units and the average of those purchasing. (See Section V.B. for ESTIMATION OF TOTAL AND MEAN EXPENDITURES). Also, an individual CU may spend more or less than the average, depending on its particular characteristics. Factors such as income, age of family members, geographic location, taste and personal preference also influence expenditures. Furthermore, even within groups with similar characteristics, the distribution of expenditures varies substantially. Expenditures reported are the direct out-of-pocket expenditures. Indirect expenditures, which may be significant, may be reflected elsewhere. For example, rental contracts often include utilities. Renters with such contracts would record no direct expense for utilities, and therefore, appear to have no utility expenses. Employers or insurance companies frequently pay other costs. CUs with members whose employers pay for all or part of their health insurance or life insurance would have lower direct expenses for these items than those who pay the entire amount themselves. These points should be considered when relating reported averages to individual circumstances.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Personal Spending in the United States decreased 0.10 percent in May of 2025 over the previous month. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Personal Spending - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Esri has combined the latest Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CEX),2014−2015, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to estimate current spending patterns.Expenditures represent the 2017 annual averages and totals. Data is reported by product or service and includes total expenditures, average spending per household, and a Spending Potential Index (SPI). Because the average expenditure reflects the average amount spent per household, total expenditure represents the aggregate amount spent by all households in an area. The SPI compares the average expenditure made locally for a product to the average amount spent nationally. An index of 100 is average. An SPI of 120 shows that average spending by local consumers is 20 percent above the national average. https://www.bls.gov/cex/. http://downloads.esri.com/esri_content_doc/dbl/us/J9945_2017_US_Consumer_Spending_Data.pdf

Average non-consumption expenditure per household by type of family organization (since 1998)

Survey of Household Spending (SHS), average household spending, Canada, regions and provinces.

Aggregated and anonymized purchase data from consumer credit and debit card spending. Spending is reported based on the ZIP code where the cardholder lives, not the ZIP code where transactions occurred. Data from Affinity Solutions, compiled by Opportunity Insights. Update Frequency: Weekly Date Range: January 13th until the most recent date available. Data Frequency: Data is daily until the final two weeks of the series, and the daily data is presented as a 7 day lookback moving average. For the final two weeks of the series, the data is weekly and presented as weekly data points. Index Period: January 4th - January 31st Indexing Type: Seasonally adjusted change since January 2020. Data is indexed in 2019 and 2020 as the change relative to the January index period. We then seasonally adjust by dividing year-over-year, which represents the difference between the change since January observed in 2020 compared to the change since January observed since 2019. We account for differences in the dates of federal holidays between 2019 and 2020 by shifting the 2019 reference data to align the holidays before performing the year-over-year division.

In 2023, the average annual expenditure of consumer units in the United States increased by 5.9 percent from the previous year. Since 2021, the annual consumer expenditure has continued to increase. This significant increase could be attributed to changes in consumer behavior as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Average annual consumer expenditure in the U.S. by type of expenditure can be found here.

Saudi Arabia Average Monthly Expenditure: Household: Consumption data was reported at 10,884.000 SAR in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 11,728.439 SAR for 2018. Saudi Arabia Average Monthly Expenditure: Household: Consumption data is updated yearly, averaging 10,884.000 SAR from Dec 2007 (Median) to 2023, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11,728.439 SAR in 2018 and a record low of 8,331.000 SAR in 2007. Saudi Arabia Average Monthly Expenditure: Household: Consumption data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by General Authority for Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Saudi Arabia – Table SA.H004: Average Monthly Expenditure.