For release: 10:00 a.m. (EDT), Tuesday, September 10, 2019 USDL-19-1593
Technical Information: (202) 691-6900 * CEXInfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/cex
Media Contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
CONSUMER EXPENDITURES--2018
Average expenditures per consumer unit(1) for 2018 were $61,224, a 1.9-percent increase from 2017 levels, the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the same period the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) rose 2.4 percent
and average pretax income increased by 6.9 percent.
Nine of the 10 largest components of household spending increased during 2018. (See table A.) The 7.8-percent rise
in personal insurance and pensions expenditures was the largest percentage increase among all major components,
followed by a 2.5-percent rise in food. The only decrease among the largest components was a 5.6-percent drop in
education spending.
Selected spending patterns, 2018
--Personal insurance and pensions spending increased 7.8 percent, compared to a decrease of 0.9 percent in
2017. This was driven by a 7.5-percent increase in contributions to pensions and Social Security.
--Spending on food increased 2.5 percent. The increase was driven by both food at home spending, up 2.3
percent, and food away from home spending, up 2.8 percent.
--Transportation expenditures were up 1.9 percent. Gasoline, other fuels, and motor oil expenditures were up
7.2 percent. Vehicle purchases declined 1.9 percent, following an increase of 11.6 percent in 2017.
--Housing expenditures increased 1.0 percent. Expenditures on rented dwellings were up 2.0 percent; however,
expenditures on owned dwellings were down 3.9 percent. The owned dwellings category includes interest on
mortgages, interest on home equity loans, property taxes and insurance, refinancing charges, homeowners'
insurance, and expenses for maintenance and repairs.
--Healthcare expenditures were up a modest 0.8 percent, following a 6.9-percent increase in 2017. The largest
component of healthcare, health insurance, was down 0.3 percent, following a 8.0-percent increase in the
preceding year.
--Cash contributions were up a modest 0.8 percent after a 10.0-percent decrease in 2017.
--Expenditures on education were down by 5.6 percent after an increase of 12.2 percent in 2017.
Pretax income rose 6.9 percent in 2018, after dropping 1.5 percent in 2017. All income quintiles with the exception
of the lowest income quintile had increases in pretax income. The highest quintile increased by 9.0 percent in 2018.
Income quintile is defined based on the pretax income reported by the consumer unit. Consumer units are divided into
five equal groups. In 2018, the lower bounds for each quintile were $21,293 for the second quintile, $41,490 for the
third quintile, $70,367 for the fourth quintile, and $116,625 for the highest quintile.
Spending by composition of consumer unit, 2018
Data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) measure how consumers allocate their spending among the various
components of total expenditures. Table B compares the shares allocated to selected expenditures by composition of
consumer units. Over 10 percent of total spending for married-couple-only consumer units went to healthcare, almost
twice as large a share as reported by one-parent consumer units (5.7 percent). Married-couple-with-children consumer
units allocated the highest share of all groups to personal insurance and pensions (14.0 percent), while
other-married-couple consumer units (those with married couples and persons other than children living in the
consumer unit) allocated the highest share to transportation (17.6 percent).
Spending by income quintile, 2018
Table C shows the percent change for expenditures by income quintile. Overall spending increased in all five quintiles,
ranging from 1.5 percent in the lowest and highest quintile to 2.5 percent in the third quintile. Transportation rose
for all five quintiles. Food at home, housing, apparel and services, entertainment, and personal insurance and pensions
rose in four of five quintiles. Food away from home and healthcare rose in three of five quintiles. Cash contributions
fell in four of five quintiles.
Table A. Average income and expenditures of all consumer units, 2016-18
________________________________________________________________________________
Percent change
Item 2016 2017 2018 2016-17 2017-18
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average income before taxes $74,664 $73,573 $78,635 -1.5 6.9
Average annual expenditures 57,311 60,060 61,224 4.8 1.9
Food 7,203 7,729 7,923 7.3 2.5
Food at home 4,049 4,363 4,464 7.8 2.3
Food away from home 3,154 3,365 3,459 6.7 2.8
Housing 18,886 19,884 20,091 5.3 1.0
Shelter 11,128 11,895 11,747 6.9 -1.2
Owned dwellings 6,295 6,947 6,678 10.4 -3.9
Rented dwellings 4,035 4,167 4,249 3.3 2.0
Apparel and services 1,803 1,833 1,866 1.7 1.8
Transportation 9,049 9,576 9,761 5.8 1.9
Vehicle purchases 3,634 4,054 3,975 11.6 -1.9
Gasoline, other fuels,
and motor oil 1,909 1,968 2,109 3.1 7.2
Healthcare 4,612 4,928 4,968 6.9 0.8
Health insurance 3,160 3,414 3,405 8.0 -0.3
Entertainment 2,913 3,203 3,226 10.0 0.7
Personal care products
and services 707 762 768 7.8 0.8
Education 1,329 1,491 1,407 12.2 -5.6
Cash contributions 2,081 1,873 1,888 -10.0 0.8
Personal insurance 6,831 6,771 7,296 -0.9 7.8
and pensions
Pensions and Social
Security 6,509 6,353 6,831 -2.4 7.5
All other expenditures 1,897 2,010 2,030 6.0 0.0
Note: Subcategories do not sum to their respective major item category.
________________________________________________________________________________
Table B. Shares of average expenditures on selected major components by
composition of consumer unit, 2018
_____________________________________________________________________________
Item All Married Married
consumer couple couple
units only with
children
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Housing 32.8 30.2 31.3
Transportation 15.9 15.6 17.1
Food 12.9 12.4 13.2
Personal insurance and pensions 11.9 11.7 14.0
Healthcare 8.1 10.2 7.0
Apparel and services 3.0 2.7 3.2
_____________________________________________________________________________
Item Other One Single
married parent, person
couple at least and other
consumer one child consumer
units under 18 units
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Housing 31.1 35.8 36.5
Transportation 17.6 16.1 14.8
Food 14.1 14.0 12.8
Personal insurance and pensions 12.2 10.2 10.1
Healthcare 8.6 5.7 7.7
Apparel and services 3.3 3.9 3.0
_____________________________________________________________________________
Table C. Change in average annual expenditures of major components by income quintile,
2018
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Item Lowest Quintile Second Quintile Third Quintile
Over-the- Over-the- Over-the-
year year year
change change change
Dollar Percent Dollar Percent Dollar Percent
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total $380 1.5 $668 1.7 $1,259 2.5
Food 39 1.0 169 3.0 -103 -1.5
At home 127 4.9 -2 -0.1 43 1.1
Away from home -88 -5.9 171 8.3 -146 -4.8
Housing 140 1.3 198 1.4 398 2.3
Apparel and services -129 -14.7 28 2.2 171 12.7
Transportation 221 6.3 189 2.9 104 1.2
Healthcare -17 -0.7 108 2.8 -5 -0.1
Entertainment 99 7.8 310 16.6 25 1.0
Cash contributions -17 -2.6 -83 -7.0 -158 -10.6
Personal insurance and pensions 61 9.3 -367 -15.2 611 14.1
All other expenditures -17 -0.8 116 5.0 216 7.0
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Item Fourth Quintile Highest Quintile
Over-the- Over-the-
year year
change change
Dollar Percent Dollar Percent
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total $1,527 2.3 $1,793 1.5
Food 596 6.8 269 2.1
At home 188 3.8 150 2.2
Away from home 409 10.6 120 1.9
Housing -27 -0.1 267 0.8
Apparel and services 51 2.5 47 1.3
Transportation 189 1.7 197 1.1
Healthcare 102 1.8 8 0.1
Entertainment 24 0.7 -357 -5.2
Cash contributions -16 -0.9 335 8.0
Personal insurance and pensions 403 4.9 1,859 10.2
All other expenditures 205 5.0 -832 -8.6
_______________________________________________________________________
Additional information
Data Products
Consumer Expenditure (CE) data include the expenditures and income of consumers, as well as the demographic
characteristics of those consumers. Tables with more expenditure detail are available at www.bls.gov/cex.
Published tables provide 2018 CE data by standard classifications that include income quintile, income decile,
income class, age of reference person, generation of reference person, size of consumer unit, number of earners,
composition of consumer unit, Census region of residence, Census division of residence, housing tenure, type of
area (urban-rural), race, Hispanic origin, occupation, and highest education level of any member. These annual
tables include means, shares, and standard errors. Other tables available on the website include expenditures by
age, region, size, or gender cross-tabulated by income before taxes and other demographic variables. Historical
tables back to 1984 and selected metropolitan area tabulations are also available.
Standard CE midyear tables, which are similar to the annual tables but cover the third quarter of a given year
through the second quarter of the next year, are available at www.bls.gov/cex/midyear.htm. Data tables with the
most detailed subcategories of expenditures by demographic can be obtained by sending a request to
cexinfo@bls.gov.
The CE LABSTAT database provides tools to access CE data and can be found at www.bls.gov/cex/data.htm. Documentation
on how to use the CE LABSTAT database is available at www.bls.gov/cex/ce-labstat-getting-started-guide.pdf.
The 1996 through 2018 CE public-use microdata, including Interview Survey data, Diary Survey data, and paradata
(information about the data collection process), are available on the CE website for free electronic download at
www.bls.gov/cex/pumd_data.htm. The Interview Survey files contain expenditure data in two different formats: MTBI
files that present monthly values in an item-coding framework based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) pricing
scheme, and EXPN files that organize expenditures by the section of the Interview questionnaire in which they are
collected. Expenditure values on EXPN files cover different time periods depending on the specific questions asked,
and the files also contain relevant non-expenditure information not found on the MTBI files. For releases prior to
1996, users can continue to purchase USB flash drives using the link to the public-use microdata order form at
www.bls.gov/cex/pumd_data.htm.
Documentation of the CE public-use microdata, its conventions, files, sample code, and methodology can be found at
www.bls.gov/cex/pumd-getting-started-guide.htm.
Publications
Recent CE-specific articles in the BLS Beyond the Numbers web report series provide analyses of topical economic
issues and long term spending trends, as well as comparisons of CE data to other data series at
www.bls.gov/cex/csxwebarticles.htm and www.bls.gov/cex/cecomparison.htm. Additional methodological and analytical
articles using CE data will be published in 2020.
The 2018 Data Quality Profile, which reports quality metrics and indicators for the Interview and Diary Surveys
regarding measurement, nonresponse, and processing error, will be available shortly after this release.
The 2018 Annual Report, which includes more detailed information on spending patterns, will be published in early
2020.
Survey Forms
Also available are the Diary Survey questionnaire and a modified version of the computer assisted personal interview
(CAPI) instrument used to collect the Interview Survey data at www.bls.gov/cex/csxsurveyforms.htm.
Methodology
The change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) cited in the text was calculated as the percentage change between the
12-month average CPI-U for all items from January to December 2017 (245.120) and the 12-month average CPI-U for all
items from January to December 2018 (251.107).
Composition of the consumer unit is the classification of interview families according to: (1) relationship of other
family members to the reference person; (2) age of the children of the reference person; and (3) combination of
relationship to the reference person and age of the children. Stepchildren and adopted children are included with the
reference person's own children. Definitions of CE terms are in the CE glossary at www.bls.gov/cex/csxgloss.htm.
Information on the methodology used to calculate and collect CE data is available at
www.bls.gov/cex/ce_methodology.htm. General articles and research papers using CE data are in the CE research library
at www.bls.gov/cex/research_papers/research-paper-catalog.htm.
Contact Information
For further information, contact the Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Office of Prices and Living Conditions
at (202) 691-6900 or by email at cexinfo@bls.gov. Information in this release will be made available to sensory
impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 1 (800) 877-8339.
(1)Consumer units include families, single persons living alone or sharing
a household with others but who are financially independent, or two or
more persons living together who share major expenses.
United States Department of Labor
