For release: 10:00 a.m. (EDT), Tuesday, September 11, 2018 USDL-18-1450
Technical Information: (202) 691-6900 • CEXInfo@bls.gov • www.bls.gov/cex
Media Contact : (202) 691-5902 • PressOffice@bls.gov
CONSUMER EXPENDITURES--2017
NOTE: This news release was reissued September 13, 2018, correcting data in
table C. The table was originally published with 2016 data. No other data
were affected.
Average expenditures per consumer unit1 for 2017 were $60,060, a 4.8-percent
increase from 2016 levels, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
During the same period, the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) rose 2.1 percent, and
average pretax incomes decreased slightly by 1.5 percent.
Eight of the 10 largest components of household spending increased during 2017.
(See table A.) The 12.2-percent rise in education spending was the largest
percentage increase among all major components, followed by a 10.0-percent rise
in entertainment.
Table A. Average expenditures and income of all consumer units, 2015-17
________________________________________________________________________________
Percent change
Item 2015 2016 2017 2015-16 2016-17
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average income before taxes $69,627 $74,664 $73,573 7.2 -1.5
Average annual expenditures 55,978 57,311 60,060 2.4 4.8
Food 7,023 7,203 7,729 2.6 7.3
Food at home 4,015 4,049 4,363 0.8 7.8
Food away from home 3,008 3,154 3,365 4.9 6.7
Housing 18,409 18,886 19,884 2.6 5.3
Shelter 10,742 11,128 11,895 3.6 6.9
Owned dwellings 6,210 6,295 6,947 1.4 10.4
Rented dwellings 3,802 4,035 4,167 6.1 3.3
Apparel and services 1,846 1,803 1,833 -2.3 1.7
Transportation 9,503 9,049 9,576 -4.8 5.8
Vehicle purchases 3,997 3,634 4,054 -9.1 11.6
Gasoline, other fuels,
and motor oil 2,090 1,909 1,968 -8.7 3.1
Healthcare 4,342 4,612 4,928 6.2 6.9
Health insurance 2,977 3,160 3,414 6.1 8.0
Entertainment 2,842 2,913 3,203 2.5 10.0
Personal care products
and services 683 707 762 3.5 7.8
Education 1,315 1,329 1,491 1.1 12.2
Cash contributions 1,819 2,081 1,873 14.4 -10.0
Personal insurance 6,349 6,831 6,771 7.6 -0.9
and pensions
Pensions and Social
Security 6,016 6,509 6,353 8.2 -2.4
All other expenditures 1,847 1,897 2,010 2.7 6.0
Note: Subcategories do not sum to their respective major item category.
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Spending patterns, 2017
Spending on food increased 7.3 percent. The increase was driven by both food at
home spending, up 7.8 percent, and food away from home spending, up 6.7 percent.
Housing expenditures increased 5.3 percent. Expenditures on the two primary
components of shelter, owned dwellings and rented dwellings were up 10.4 percent
and 3.3 percent, respectively.
Transportation expenditures were up 5.8 percent, driven by vehicle purchases,
which were up 11.6 percent, following a 9.1 percent decline in 2016. Gasoline,
other fuels, and motor oil expenditures were up a modest 3.1 percent, the first
increase since 2012.
Healthcare expenditures were up 6.9 percent, following a 6.2-percent increase in
2016. The largest component of healthcare, health insurance, was up 8.0 percent,
following a 6.1-percent increase in the preceding year.
Spending by composition of consumer unit, 2017
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 (5.8 percent). Married-couple-with-children consumer units
allocated the highest share of all groups to personal insurance and pensions
(12.8 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 (17.3 percent).
Table B. Shares of average expenditures on selected major components by composition
of consumer unit, 2017
_____________________________________________________________________________
Item Married Married Other
couple couple married
only with couple
children consumer
units
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food 12.0 13.6 13.3
Housing 30.3 31.9 32.5
Transportation 15.7 16.4 17.3
Healthcare 10.4 7.1 7.9
Personal insurance and pensions 11.5 12.8 12.0
_____________________________________________________________________________
Item One Single
parent, person
at least and other
one child consumer
under 18 units
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food 12.9 12.9
Housing 37.7 36.1
Transportation 16.0 15.4
Healthcare 5.8 7.8
Personal insurance and pensions 8.6 9.7
_____________________________________________________________________________
Spending by income quintile, 2017
Table C shows the percent change for expenditures by income quintile. Overall
spending increased in all five quintiles, ranging from 3.5 percent in the
lowest quintile to 6.9 percent in the second quintile. Food at home, food away
from home, housing, healthcare, and entertainment, rose for all five quintiles.
Apparel and services and transportation expenditures rose in four of five
quintiles. Personal insurance and pensions spending rose in three of five
quintiles. Cash contributions fell in three of five quintiles.
Table C. Dollar change and percent change in average annual expenditures on major
components by income quintile, 2016-17
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Item Lowest Second Third
Dollar Percent Dollar Percent Dollar
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average annual expenditure change:
Total $881 3.5 $2,530 6.9 $2,806
Food 208 5.4 693 13.9 837
At home 80 3.2 510 16.4 341
Away from home 128 9.4 183 9.8 496
Housing 146 1.4 543 4.0 1,147
Apparel and services 18 2.1 88 7.6 -171
Transportation -270 -7.2 580 9.7 68
Healthcare 336 15.6 361 10.2 376
Entertainment 124 10.8 90 5.0 173
Cash contributions 92 16.5 -239 -16.7 184
Personal insurance and pensions 10 1.6 655 37.1 109
All other expenditures 217 11.6 -241 -9.4 83
______________________________________________________________________________
Item Third Fourth Highest
Percent Dollar Percent Dollar Percent
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average annual expenditure change:
Total 5.9 $2,694 4.2 $4,767 4.2
Food 13.4 321 3.8 566 4.5
At home 9.2 155 3.3 484 7.8
Away from home 19.6 165 4.5 82 1.3
Housing 7.0 1,557 7.5 1,581 4.7
Apparel and services -11.3 93 4.7 122 3.5
Transportation 0.8 168 1.5 2,076 12.9
Healthcare 8.8 322 5.9 180 2.3
Entertainment 7.4 61 1.8 1,001 17.0
Cash contributions 14.1 -18 -1.0 -1,063 -20.3
Personal insurance and pensions 2.6 -47 -0.6 -1,049 -5.4
All other expenditures 2.8 237 6.1 1,353 16.2
______________________________________________________________________________
Additional information
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 2017
CE data by standard classifications that include income quintile, income decile,
income class, age of reference person, size of consumer unit, number of earners,
composition of consumer unit, region 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
also available and can be found at www.bls.gov/cex/midyear.htm. Data tables with
the most detailed subcategories of expenditures can be obtained by sending a
request to cexinfo@bls.gov.
The 1996 through 2017 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 public-use microdata
order form at www.bls.gov/cex/pumd_doc.htm.
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 – December 2016 (240.007) and the 12-month average CPI-U for all items from
January – December 2017 (245.120).
The 2017 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.
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 2018.
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.
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.
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
