The average planned back-to-school spending per household in the United States gradually increased year-on-year, reaching about 890 U.S. dollars in 2023. While this was an increase of over 400 dollars since the beginning of the survey period in 2004, the numbers had begun to fall back down by 2024. That year, U.S. consumers planned to spend an average of 875 U.S. dollars on back-to-school purchases. Spending breakdown In 2024, parents planned to spend the most on electronics or computer-related equipment, with average household spending expected to reach just over 309 U.S. dollars. Although parents relied on several kinds of outlets for back-to-school supplies, the leading location for such items was online. More than half of respondents planned to undertake their shopping there. Department stores stood in second place. Back-to-school vs. back-to-college spending While parents planned to spend hundreds of dollars to send their children back to school, college students and their families were willing to spend even more. In 2024, the average household spend for back-to-college was expected to equal more than 1,300 U.S. dollars.

In 2024, about 95 percent of parents planned to buy school supplies for their children during the back-to-school (BTS) season. While only about 66 percent of shopping parents planned to buy electronics and computer-related gear for school purposes, it is what BTS shoppers typically spent the most on.

This statistic depicts total back-to-school spending in the United States from 2006 to 2024. In 2024, total planned back-to-school expenditure in the United States amounted to about 38.8 billion U.S. dollars.

This statistic depicts total combined planned back-to-school and back-to-college spending in the United States from 2007 to 2024. In 2024, total combined back-to-school and back-to-college expenditure in the United States amounted to more than 125 billion U.S. dollars.

This statistic shows the average dollar amount U.S. parents expected to spend on back-to-school items in 2024, broken down by category. In 2024, parents expected to spend on average 253 U.S. dollars on their children's back-to-school clothing and accessories.

In 2024, parents expected to spend an average of just under 590 U.S. dollars on back-to-school supplies per child, which is a very slight decrease compared to the previous year.

In 2024, consumers in the United States were expected to spend a total of approximately 11.2 billion U.S. dollars on clothing and accessories during the back-to-school shopping season. Total spending on electronic gadgets for school, as well as computer and hardware goods, was expected to reach about 13.7 billion U.S. dollars that year.

In 2024, more than half (56 percent) of surveyed Canadians said they expected to spend the same amount on back-to-school purchases as they did in 2023.

In 2024, roughly a third of parents planned to use social media to assist them during their back-to-school shopping. At 21 percent, 2023 had a lower share of U.S. consumers using social media for such purposes, compared to the last few years.

During the 2024 back-to-school shopping season in Canada, stationery was the most popular spending category. Over 60 percent of surveyed Canadian shoppers had purchased notebooks, pens, markers, project supplies, or other items of stationery as gifts or purchases specifically associated with back-to-school.

In 2024, consumers in the United States were asked where they would do their back-to-school shopping. 57 percent of respondents planned to undertake their back-to-school shopping through online retailers. Many also intended to visit department, discount, and clothing stores for their children's school supply needs.

Over one in five surveyed U.S. parents with children entering K-12 in the fall of 2024 planned on going to Walmart for their back-to-school supply shopping. Target and Dollar Tree were the second and third-most popular choices, with about 20 and 10 percent of survey respondents stating they were likely to shop there, respectively.

In 2024, about nine in ten back-to-college shoppers planned to buy school supplies during the back-to-college (BTC) season. Nearly 60 percent of surveyed consumers also intended to buy dorm or apartment furnishings.

This statistic presents total planned U.S. consumer expenditure on back-to-college school supplies from 2007 to 2024. For the 2024 school year, U.S. consumers planned to spend approximately 5.8 billion U.S. dollars on college supplies.

This statistic features the amount U.S. consumers planned to spend on back-to-college school supplies from 2007 to 2024. In 2024, customers in the U.S. planned to spend about 91.29 U.S. dollars on average on back-to-college school supplies.

In 2024, almost four in 10 survey respondents indicated that the main influencing factor for purchasing back-to-school supplies was the price. Similarly, roughly a third of Colombian consumers stated that quality was the main aspect. In comparison, only five percent considered quality as a decisive factor.

In 2024, 45 percent of U.S. adults intended to do less than half of their back-to-school shopping online. A total 21 percent reported to intentions to do more than half of it online.

The majority of Canadians (55.4 percent) did not make back-to-school purchases in 2024. Those who did engage in back-to-school shopping typically made their purchases a few weeks before, with 16.7 percent of survey respondents doing their back-to-school shopping about 4 weeks in advance.

This statistic displays the amount U.S. consumers planned to spend on gift cards as part of their back-to-college shopping from 2017 to 2024. In 2024, customers in the U.S. planned to spend about 94 U.S. dollars on average on back-to-college gift cards.

The National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program develops bi-annually updated point locations (latitude and longitude) for private schools included in the NCES Private School Survey (PSS). The PSS is conducted to provide a biennial count of the total number of private schools, teachers, and students. The PSS school location and associated geographic area assignments are derived from reported information about the physical location of private schools. The school geocode file includes supplemental geographic information for the universe of schools reported in the most current PSS school collection, and they can be integrated with the survey files through use of institutional identifiers included in both sources. For more information about NCES school point data, see: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/Geographic/SchoolLocations and https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/Geographic/LocaleBoundaries

Previous collections are available for the following years:

2021-22 2019-20 2017-18 2015-16

All information contained in this file is in the public domain. Data users are advised to review NCES program documentation and feature class metadata to understand the limitations and appropriate use of these data.