For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, October 29, 2026 USDL-26-1619
Technical information: (202) 691-6900 * CEXInfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/cex
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
Consumer Expenditures--2025
Average annual expenditures for all consumer units in 2025 were $81,905, a 4.3-percent
increase from 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table 1.)
Average income before taxes was $110,847 in 2025, a 6.4-percent increase from 2024. During
the same period, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 2.6 percent.
Focusing on statistically significant changes from 2024 to 2025 in the major components of
total expenditures, average expenditures increased for food and housing. (See table 1.) The
4.6-percent increase in the average annual expenditures on food is due in part to an
11.7-percent increase in expenditures on meats, poultry, fish, and eggs. Average annual
expenditures on housing increased 5.8 percent in 2025, mostly due to an 8.0-percent increase
in expenditures on shelter.
On average, consumer units spent $27,790 on housing in 2025, which was 33.9 percent of total
average annual expenditures. The next largest shares of total expenditures were transportation
(16.5 percent), food (13.0 percent), and personal insurance and pensions (12.4 percent).
(See table 2.)
In 2025, average annual expenditures ranged from $37,935 for consumer units in the lowest
income quintile to $159,512 for consumer units in the highest income quintile, while average
income before taxes ranged from $18,125 to $286,188, respectively, for these income quintiles.
(See table 3.) For information about how income quintiles are constructed, see the technical
notes section.
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Lapse in Federal Appropriations
Due to the 2025 lapse in federal appropriations, the Census Bureau could not collect the Consumer
Expenditure Surveys (CE) for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in October and November 2025. BLS used
a weight adjustment approach to account for these missing 2025 data. The Census Bureau resumed collection of
CE data on December 5, 2025.
Additional information is available online at www.bls.gov/cex/2025-federal-government-shutdown-impact-ce.htm.
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Table 1. Average income and expenditures of all consumer units, Consumer Expenditure Surveys, 2024-2025
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Percent change
Item 2024 2025 2024-2025
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Number of consumer units (in thousands)(a) 135,760 137,994 1.6
Average income before taxes $104,207 $110,847 6.4*
Average annual expenditures $78,527(b) $81,905 4.3*
Food 10,169 10,633 4.6*
Food at home 6,224 6,491 4.3
Cereals and bakery products 779 741 -4.9
Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs 1,414 1,579 11.7*
Dairy products 631 644 2.1
Fruits and vegetables 953 988 3.7
Other food at home 2,447 2,539 3.8
Food away from home 3,945 4,142 5.0
Alcoholic beverages 643 630 -2.0
Housing 26,266 27,790 5.8*
Shelter 16,317 17,626 8.0*
Owned dwellings 9,310 9,988 7.3
Rented dwellings 5,660 6,272 10.8*
Other lodging 1,347 1,366 1.4
Utilities, fuels, and public services 4,736 4,931 4.1*
Household operations 1,921 2,034 5.9
Housekeeping supplies 877 844 -3.8
Household furnishings and equipment 2,414 2,355 -2.4
Apparel and services 2,001 2,010 0.4
Transportation 13,318 13,492 1.3
Vehicle purchases (net outlay) 5,337 5,023 -5.9
Gasoline and other fuels 2,645 2,503 -5.4*
Other vehicle expenses(c) 4,206 4,765 13.3*
Public and other transportation 1,131 1,199 6.0
Healthcare 6,197 6,470 4.4
Health insurance 4,055 4,310 6.3*
Medical services 1,252 1,260 0.6
Drugs 658 672 2.1
Medical supplies 233 228 -2.1
Entertainment 3,609 4,084 13.2
Personal care products and services 978 986 0.8
Reading 125 114 -8.8
Education 1,569 1,583 0.9
Tobacco products and smoking supplies 352 365 3.7
Miscellaneous 1,210(b) 1,335 10.3
Cash contributions 2,292 2,237 -2.4
Personal insurance and pensions 9,797 10,175 3.9
a Change over time in number of consumer units is not evaluated for statistical significance.
b Estimates differ from those published in previous annual news releases due to corrections
that occurred post-publication. These corrections did not meet the BLS threshold for republication
of CE estimates.
c To improve data quality, BLS changed the publication source of a subcomponent of other vehicle
expenses from the Interview Survey to the Diary Survey, contributing to the statistically significant
increase in this component in 2025. For more information, see www.bls.gov/cex/csxfaqs.htm#DataProducts.
* The differences in the means associated with the percent change are significant at the 95 percent
confidence level. See the technical notes section for more information.
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Table 2. Shares of total average annual expenditures by major components, for all consumer units,
Consumer Expenditure Surveys, 2025
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Spending Component 2025
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Average annual expenditures 100.0
Food 13.0
Alcoholic beverages 0.8
Housing 33.9
Apparel and services 2.5
Transportation 16.5
Healthcare 7.9
Entertainment 5.0
Personal care products and services 1.2
Reading 0.1
Education 1.9
Tobacco products and smoking supplies 0.4
Miscellaneous 1.6
Cash contributions 2.7
Personal insurance and pensions 12.4
Note: Percentages may not add to 100.0 due to rounding.
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Table 3. Average income before taxes and average annual expenditures by income quintile, Consumer Expenditure
Surveys, 2025
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Estimate All Lowest Second Third Fourth Highest
consumer quintile quintile quintile quintile quintile
units
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Number of consumer units (in thousands) 137,994 27,770 27,543 27,778 27,353 27,551
Average income before taxes $110,847 $18,125 $46,080 $78,584 $126,349 $286,188
Average annual expenditures $81,905 $37,935 $51,405 $68,983 $92,250 $159,512
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Additional Information
Data Products
In addition to expenditures, BLS also produces CE data on income, demographics, assets, and liabilities. Published
tables with more expenditure detail than are presented here, as well as tables showing annual aggregate expenditures
(total dollars spent in the economy) for various items, are available at www.bls.gov/cex/tables.htm. These tables
provide 2025 CE data for all consumer units and by the following classifications: income before taxes; quintiles of
income before taxes; deciles of income before taxes; region of residence; population size of area; type of area of
consumer unit (e.g., urban or rural); composition of consumer unit (e.g., married couples, married couples with
children, etc.); highest education level of any consumer unit member; housing tenure of consumer unit (e.g., owner,
renter, etc.); number of earners in consumer unit; size of consumer unit; military status within consumer unit; age
of reference person; generation of reference person; selected age ranges of reference person; Hispanic or Latino
origin of reference person; occupation of reference person; and race of reference person. These tables include
expenditure means, shares of total expenditures, standard errors, relative standard errors, and percent reporting.
A table showing results for all consumer units including the most detailed breakdown of expenditures is available at
www.bls.gov/cex/tables/top-line-means.htm. Annual historical published tables dating back to 1984 are also available
at www.bls.gov/cex/tables/calendar-year/mean-item-share-average-standard-error.htm.
To aid in the interpretation of CE tables, the CE website includes the Tables Getting Started Guide, available at
www.bls.gov/cex/tables-getting-started-guide.htm. The guide includes an overview of tables, concepts, and other
information to help data users.
The CE database, which provides tools to access CE estimates, is available at www.bls.gov/cex/data.htm. The database
includes estimates of annual means from 1984 forward. It also includes estimates of standard errors, relative
standard errors, shares of total expenditures, and percent reporting from 2010-2025, and aggregate expenditures and
their shares from 2011-2025. Detailed level estimates are also available from 2010-2025 for the classifications
mentioned above and for all consumer units. Documentation on how to use the CE database is available at
www.bls.gov/cex/labstat/ce-labstat-getting-started-guide.htm.
Additionally, CE public use microdata (PUMD) for 1980 through 2025 are available at www.bls.gov/cex/pumd_data.htm.
The PUMD comprise the Interview Survey files, which include paradata (information about the data collection process),
and the Diary Survey files. Documentation of the PUMD, its conventions, files, sample code, and methodology can be
found at www.bls.gov/cex/pumd-getting-started-guide.htm.
New Product for the 2025 Data Release
The 2025 data release will include a table showing military status within a consumer unit. These data were previously
available as a research product. The table includes three main categories: all consumer units, military consumer units,
and non-military consumer units. Military consumer units comprise three groups: all veteran and/or active duty, veteran
only, and active duty only. Military consumer units with both types of members (at least one veteran and at least one
active duty member) are included in the first military consumer unit group; however, they are not listed as a separate
group due to small sample size. In addition, data from this table are available in the CE database starting with the 2025
data release. The CE population excludes, among others, those living on military bases.
Publications
BLS publishes additional information on the CE related to survey data, trends, analysis, and methods. These
publications are available at www.bls.gov/cex/csxreport.htm. Additional CE program publications, documents, and
presentations are available via the CE Library at www.bls.gov/cex/research_papers/research-paper-catalog.htm.
Information on the methodology used to calculate and collect CE data is available at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cex/home.htm.
The 2025 Data Quality Profile, which reports quality metrics and indicators for the Interview and Diary Surveys
regarding measurement, nonresponse, and processing error, will be available at www.bls.gov/cex/cecomparison.htm
shortly after publication of this release.
The 2025 Annual Report, which includes more detailed information on spending patterns, is planned for publication
in 2027. The 2024 Annual Report, published in August 2026, is available at
www.bls.gov/opub/reports/consumer-expenditures/2024/home.htm.
Technical Notes
Terminology. For more information on how terms used in this release are defined (such as consumer units, reference
person, owned dwellings, etc.), see the CE glossary at www.bls.gov/cex/csxgloss.htm.
Consumer Price Index Citation. The change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) cited in the
text was calculated as the percentage change between the 2024 annual average CPI-U for all items (313.689) and the
2025 annual average CPI-U for all items (321.943). For 2025, the annual average is calculated using 11 months of
data since the October 2025 CPI-U is unavailable due to the lapse in federal appropriations. These data were
obtained from the CPI databases, which can be found at data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SA0. BLS does not test this
change for statistical significance.
Two-year Tables. The 2024-2025 tabular estimates (“Two-year means tables by geographic areas” and “Two-year means
cross-tabulated tables”) will not be published with the 2025 annual release of CE data. BLS used the standard
Balanced Repeated Replication (BRR) method for estimating standard errors prior to the 2025 annual release. BLS
will calculate standard errors using Fay’s method, a variant of BRR, with the 2025 annual release. This new method
will produce more robust variance measures. Due to the difference in variance estimation methodology across the two
years, BLS will not produce 2024-2025 two-year tabular estimates. For more information, see
www.bls.gov/cex/ce-standarderrors.htm.
Significance Testing. Significance tests for differences in means shown in Table 1 were performed using t-tests.
Differences denoted with an asterisk are statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level due to their
t-values being 2.02 or greater in absolute value, while differences without an asterisk are not statistically
significant due to their t-values being less than 2.02 in absolute value. While the asterisks in Table 1 are shown
next to percent changes, it is the differences in dollar amounts that were tested for statistical significance. The
standard errors used in the t-tests were computed using Fay’s method of BRR with 44 degrees of freedom.
Components of Income Before Taxes. Income before taxes in the CE includes the following components: wages and salaries;
self-employment income; Social Security; private and government retirement; interest and dividends; rental and other
property income; unemployment, workers' compensation, and veterans' benefits; public assistance, supplemental security
income, and food stamps; regular contributions for support; and other income. Not included in these estimates are
government subsidies for businesses, as these are out of scope for the CE.
Income Quintiles. Every year, BLS constructs income quintiles by sorting consumer units in the sample from lowest to
highest income before taxes. Because there were approximately 138 million consumer units in the population in 2025,
each quintile includes about 28 million consumer units. However, the counts are not identical across quintiles because
the cumulative frequency count is performed within each quarter of the year, not for the year as a whole. In the 2025
quintiles of income before taxes table, the lower income bounds were $32,623 for the second quintile, $60,056 for the
third quintile, $99,007 for the fourth quintile, and $160,635 for the highest quintile.
Geographic Revisions. Every 10 years, BLS updates the geographic areas in the CE sample based on the results of the
latest U.S. census. The most recent update occurred in 2025. This means some Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
(or other geographic areas) that were in the sample in 2024 are no longer included, while other MSAs that were not
in the sample in 2024 are now included. These updates to the sample affect the weighting of the data and the statistics
derived from them, such as mean estimates and standard errors.
Contact Information
For further information, contact BLS at (202) 691-6900 or by email at cexinfo@bls.gov. If you are deaf, hard of hearing,
or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.
United States Department of Labor
