Consumer Spending Statistics 2026: Retail Trends and Household Data

The latest consumer spending statistics show the average US household spent $77,535 in 2024, with consumer spending driving nearly 70% of US GDP. This data guide breaks down household spending by category, income level, and retail trend — and shows where deal-seeking makes the biggest budget impact in 2026.

The average American household spent $77,535 last year. Even with incomes up, the typical family sends about 75 cents of every pre-tax dollar right back out the door on housing, food, transportation, and the rest of life’s basics.

Consumer spending drives nearly 70% of the US economy. When habits shift, the ripples reach every corner of retail. Right now, something genuinely unusual is happening. The headline numbers look fine – spending is up, retail sales are growing. But underneath, a K-shaped divide has opened wider than at any point since the late 1980s. Upper-income households are spending freely on travel and experiences. Lower-income households are juggling higher credit card balances, cutting restaurant visits, and shopping at three different grocery stores each month just to stretch things further.

What follows is a breakdown of the latest consumer spending data from the BLS, BEA, US Census Bureau, National Retail Federation, TD Economics, Deloitte, YouGov, and JP Morgan – all current as of March 2026.

Key Consumer Spending Statistics at a Glance

Before we get into the full breakdown, here are the headline numbers that define the current state of American consumer spending:

• $77,535 – average annual household expenditure in 2024 (BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, released December 2025)
• $101,207 – average pre-tax household income in 2024, meaning households spend about 77 cents of every dollar earned
• $19,667 billion – total US personal consumption expenditures (PCE) in Q4 2025, an all-time record (BEA)
• ~68% – share of US GDP driven by consumer spending, above the long-term average of 64.4%
• 2.7% – annualized PCE growth in 2025 (TD Economics)
• $5.6 trillion – NRF’s forecast for total US retail sales in 2026, up 4.4% from 2025
• $1.234 trillion – total US e-commerce sales in 2025, representing 16.6% of all retail (Census Bureau)
• 2.8% – PCE price index inflation as of January 2026 (BEA), still above the Fed’s 2% target

One thing to keep in mind as you read: the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey captures 2024 household-level data (released December 2025), while BEA PCE data runs through early 2026. The two datasets measure slightly different things, which we explain in the methodology section at the end.

How Americans Spend Their Money: Household Budget Breakdown

The BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey is the most detailed picture we have of how American households actually allocate their money. The 2024 data (the latest available) shows the average household spending $77,535 per year across eight major categories.

Housing eats the biggest chunk: 33.4% of total spending, or $25,266 per year. Rent or mortgage, utilities, furniture, household supplies. For most households, this is a fixed cost – there is no coupon code for your landlord.

Transportation comes in second at 17% ($13,318) – car payments, fuel, insurance, public transit. Also largely fixed. Fuel fluctuates, but you cannot really coupon your way out of needing a car.

Food at 12.9% ($10,169) is where it gets interesting. About 39% of that food budget – roughly $3,965 per year – goes to restaurants, takeout, and delivery. That is the slice where spending habits shift fastest when budgets tighten, and it is also one of the most coupon-friendly categories in retail.

Entertainment ($3,609 per year) and apparel ($2,001) round out the genuinely flexible spending. Add those to the dining-out portion of food, and you have about $9,575 per year – roughly 12% of the average household’s total budget – that is discretionary, coupon-friendly, and where systematic deal-seeking actually moves the needle.

Healthcare at 7.9% ($6,197) and personal insurance/pensions at 12.5% ($9,797) round out the non-negotiables. Both have been growing faster than overall inflation, quietly squeezing the room left for everything else.

Spending by Household Size and Type

The $77,535 average is exactly that – an average. Actual spending varies substantially by household size:

Source: BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024

The jump from a two-person to a four-person household is substantial – roughly $20,000 more per year – driven primarily by increased food, transportation, and education spending. Interestingly, households with five or more members spend slightly less than four-person households on average, likely reflecting economies of scale and the fact that larger households tend to skew toward lower-income demographics.

Income level creates even more dramatic differences. According to BLS 2024 data, the lowest income quintile averages about $29,046 in annual expenditures, while the highest quintile averages $151,342 – more than five times as much. The composition of that spending differs too: lower-income households spend a much higher share of their budget on food and housing as a percentage of total spending, leaving far less room for discretionary categories.

US Consumer Spending Totals: PCE and GDP Context

The household budget numbers tell you what individuals spend. The BEA’s personal consumption expenditures (PCE) data tells you what the whole country spends, and the scale is remarkable.

Total US PCE reached $19,667 billion in Q4 2025, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis – the highest quarterly figure on record. For context, that is roughly $19.7 trillion in a single quarter from a population of about 335 million people.

Consumer spending now represents approximately 68% of US GDP, above the long-term average of 64.4%. This is not necessarily a sign of strength – it partly reflects that other components of the economy (business investment, government spending, exports) have grown more slowly. But it does mean consumer behavior is more consequential for overall economic health than at almost any point in modern history.

The monthly trend heading into 2026 is modest but steady. PCE rose 0.4% in December 2025 and another 0.4% in January 2026, according to BEA data. Within that January figure, services spending rose $38.7 billion while goods spending actually fell $8.6 billion – continuing a pattern that has defined the post-pandemic economy. Americans are spending more on healthcare, housing services, and experiences, while pulling back on physical goods.

TD Economics put full-year 2025 spending growth at 2.7%. Respectable – but well below the 5-6% pace of the post-pandemic surge years. The consumer is still spending, just more carefully than before.

The K-Shaped Recovery: How Income Divides Consumer Spending

The most important story in consumer spending right now is not the aggregate numbers. It is the widening gap between how upper-income and lower-income households are faring – what economists call a K-shaped pattern, because the two groups are moving in opposite directions.

According to TD Economics analysis of Federal Reserve data, the top 20% of US households held 72% of total household wealth in Q4 2025. That is the highest concentration of household wealth since the Federal Reserve began tracking it in 1989. The wealth gains have been disproportionately driven by equity market performance and home appreciation in premium markets, both of which benefit higher-income households far more than lower-income ones.

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (Hagler and Patki, 2025) found that high-income consumers have been the primary driver of aggregate spending growth since 2022. Their credit card data from the Y-14M supervisory dataset showed that while high-income cardholders still had ample available credit and manageable balances, low-income cardholders now carry substantially higher credit card debt than they did in 2019, before the pandemic.

The practical implications play out across retail in ways that are becoming increasingly visible. McDonald’s reported losing traffic from lower-income consumers who can no longer comfortably afford fast-food meals as prices have risen. At the other end of the market, airlines filled premium cabin seats at record rates, and luxury goods firms reported strong US demand through most of 2025. Budget-focused retailers gained volume from lower-income households trading down; premium retailers saw higher basket sizes from affluent shoppers.

TD Economics also noted that upper-income households benefited disproportionately from the equity market rally of 2024-2025, while lower-income households rely more heavily on home equity, which grew more slowly and is harder to access for everyday spending. The result: two consumer economies operating simultaneously, with one driving the headline GDP numbers and the other quietly contracting.

For budget-focused shoppers, this dynamic matters practically. The K-shape means government averages like “consumer spending grew 2.7%” can be misleading. For households in the bottom two income quintiles, actual discretionary spending power has been flat or declining after inflation adjustments.

Retail Sales Trends and E-Commerce Growth

The retail picture heading into 2026 is stronger than many analysts expected given persistent inflation and interest rate pressure.

Total US retail sales in Q4 2025 reached $1,900.5 billion, up 0.4% from Q3, according to the Census Bureau’s Monthly and Quarterly Retail Trade data. Full-year 2025 retail sales grew approximately 3.5% over 2024, according to Bain and Company’s analysis of Census data. The National Retail Federation, using its new Oxford Economics model, forecasts 4.4% retail growth in 2026 to $5.6 trillion – above the pre-pandemic 10-year average of 3.6% annual growth.

E-commerce continues its steady structural growth. The Census Bureau reported Q4 2025 e-commerce at $341.1 billion (seasonally adjusted), representing 16.6% of total retail sales. On an unadjusted basis, which captures the natural peak of holiday shopping, the share reached 18.3%. For the full year, US e-commerce totaled approximately $1.234 trillion in 2025, up about 5.4% from 2024.

What is notable about the 2025 e-commerce figure is that it crossed the $1.2 trillion threshold for the first time. Online retail has more than doubled since 2019, when it accounted for about 11% of total retail sales. The pandemic accelerated adoption, but the channel has continued to grow even as in-store traffic has recovered, suggesting that the shift is behavioral, not just situational.

From a DontPayFull perspective, we track this trend directly through the coupon categories where we see the highest search and redemption volume. Online discount codes for apparel, electronics, and home goods consistently outperform in-store coupon searches, which aligns with the Census Bureau data showing online retail is capturing a growing share of exactly those discretionary categories.

The November 2025 through January 2026 retail period – spanning Black Friday through post-holiday clearance – grew 2.9% year-over-year, according to the Census Bureau. That is a solid holiday season, though below the 4-5% growth retailers saw in 2023’s comparable period.

How Inflation Has Affected Consumer Spending

Inflation is no longer the 9% emergency it was in mid-2022, but it is not gone either. The PCE price index rose 2.8% year-over-year in January 2026, according to BEA data, still above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

The aggregate number hides some category-level patterns that matter more to household budgets. Food away from home (restaurants and takeout) rose 4.1% in 2025. Energy was up 7.4%. Hospital and healthcare services climbed 6.7%. These categories are not easily substituted, which is why 72% of global consumers reported still being concerned about rising prices for everyday purchases in March 2026, according to Deloitte ConsumerSignals.

Goods inflation has been more benign. New vehicle prices were essentially flat in 2025, and many categories of physical retail goods saw price moderation as supply chains normalized. The inflation battle, at this point, is mostly a services-side problem: costs for housing, healthcare, childcare, and dining out keep rising while the stuff you can buy with a coupon code has largely stabilized.

The mismatch between how Americans feel about their finances and how they actually behave is one of the more counterintuitive aspects of the current moment. Consumer sentiment indices showed persistent pessimism through much of 2025, yet actual spending remained positive. JP Morgan Research flagged this disconnect in their mid-2025 analysis, noting that Chase card transaction data showed continued growth even as consumers reported feeling financially stressed.

The Deloitte global financial well-being index reached 104.9 in February 2026, up from 102.4 a year earlier, suggesting sentiment is improving – slowly. But it remains below the levels that typically accompany truly confident consumer spending.

One behavioral consequence of sustained inflation that often goes undiscussed: it has changed reference prices. Consumers who remember paying $12 for a chicken sandwich in 2019 now see $18 as the norm. When they use a coupon for $3 off, they perceive more value than they would have when prices were lower. This makes coupon redemption rates stickier through inflationary periods, which is consistent with what we observe in usage data across the DontPayFull platform.

Consumer Spending Outlook for 2026

Where does spending go from here? The picture is cautiously optimistic in aggregate, but meaningfully bifurcated by income.

A YouGov survey conducted in early March 2026 found that 34% of US adults expect their personal finances to improve over the coming year, while 28% expect them to worsen. That is a net positive balance, but far from the bullish consumer confidence that characterized 2018 or even 2023. Notably, 53% of Americans have set a formal budget for 2026, up sharply from 46% in 2025. That is the biggest single-year jump in YouGov’s tracking series, suggesting that budget awareness – driven by years of inflation and rising interest rates on credit card balances – is becoming a durable behavioral shift rather than a temporary adjustment.

Both TD Economics and NRF project continued spending resilience in 2026, supported by:

• A labor market that has kept unemployment below 4.5%
• Income growth that is running slightly ahead of inflation in real terms
• Strong household balance sheets in the upper half of the income distribution
• Continued wealth effects from equity markets (though equity volatility adds uncertainty here)

The spending outlook for the bottom half of the income distribution is less favorable. TD Economics explicitly noted that the 2026 outlook is bifurcated between higher- and lower-income consumers. Potential reductions in government support programs weigh more heavily on households that depend on those programs, while the tax cut benefits being discussed in Washington would disproportionately favor upper-income households.

JP Morgan Research, citing Chase card transaction data, identified Gen Z and Millennials as the strongest growth demographic for spending in 2025-2026. Discretionary spending by Gen Z and Millennial cardholders was up 5.9% month-to-date in May 2025 – an unusually strong reading. As these cohorts enter their peak earning years, they represent a structural tailwind for consumer spending growth, though they also carry higher student debt and are entering a housing market with historically elevated prices.

Value-Seeking Behavior: How Consumers Are Cutting Back

The YouGov March 2026 data gets specific about what budget-conscious Americans plan to cut. Among those who expect their finances to worsen this year:

• 66% plan to cut back on eating or drinking out
• 54% plan to reduce clothing and apparel spending
• 48% plan to cut subscriptions and event spending

These are the same categories that always top the discretionary-cuts list when budgets tighten – and they are the categories where smart deal-seeking pays off most. A household that cuts dining-out spending by 30% through a combination of cooking at home and using restaurant discount codes can realistically save $1,000 or more per year. That is not a trivial number relative to the average entertainment budget of $3,609 annually.

What makes 2026 different is the breadth of this shift. Deloitte’s 2026 Retail Industry Global Outlook surveyed global retailers and found 96% now see value-seeking as a permanent feature of consumer behavior – not a temporary inflation reaction, but a lasting reset in how shoppers engage with retail. That is why promotional budgets, loyalty programs, and digital coupons have expanded even as headline inflation has moderated. Retailers have accepted that deal-seeking is the new default.

The cross-shopping data from the Upside Consumer Spend Report makes the same point from a behavioral angle. In 2025, the average US consumer shopped at 3.1 different grocery stores per month – up 8% from the prior year – and visited 2.6 gas stations monthly, up 7%. People are actively price-hunting for basics in a way that would have seemed unusual five years ago. That habit does not go away just because inflation numbers look better on paper.

At DontPayFull, we track this directly. When we look at the fastest-growing coupon searches on our platform over the past 18 months, it is not luxury or premium brands driving the activity. It is everyday retailers: grocery delivery apps, restaurant chains, clothing basics, streaming services, drugstore chains. We have also noticed that deal-seekers in 2025-2026 are coming back more frequently than in previous years – the pattern looks less like occasional bargain-hunting and more like a weekly habit. The budget-focused shopper is not just spending less – they are spending the same on what matters and actively recovering the difference with deals.

Where Coupons and Deal-Seeking Make the Biggest Difference

Understanding consumer spending statistics is more useful when you can see where the savings opportunities are largest. Based on the BLS spending categories, three areas offer the most practical leverage for deal-seeking:

Food away from home, entertainment, and apparel together represent roughly $9,575 per year for the average household – about 12% of total spending. These three categories have something in common: they are genuinely discretionary (you can cook at home, skip the movie, buy fewer clothes), they are coupon-friendly (promo codes, loyalty programs, and deal sites are well-established in all three), and they are the categories that budget-pressured households most want to cut in 2026.

A household that systematically uses discount codes and coupons in all three categories could reasonably expect 10-20% savings across the combined $9,575 annual spend, translating to roughly $957 to $1,915 in annual savings. That is not a lifestyle sacrifice – it is the same restaurants, the same clothing brands, the same entertainment, just purchased more strategically.

With 53% of Americans now formally budgeting (up from 46%), the behavioral infrastructure for this kind of systematic deal-seeking is already in place. The question is whether they have the tools to act on it. DontPayFull covers all three of these high-opportunity categories, with discount codes and deals for restaurant chains, entertainment services, and apparel retailers across thousands of stores. The DontPayFull browser extension applies these codes automatically at checkout.

As e-commerce continues to grow – now accounting for 16-18% of all US retail – online coupon codes become the default mechanism for savings in these categories. The shift that happened in-store couponing (clipping from a newspaper) happened faster and more completely in digital retail: promo codes at checkout are now standard consumer behavior, according to our best coupon sites guide, not a niche activity.

Methodology: About This Consumer Spending Data

The statistics in this article draw from four primary government data sources and several institutional research reports. Here is how to interpret each:

Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey (BLS CES): The most detailed household-level spending data available in the US. The 2024 BLS CES data was released in December 2025 and covers approximately 135 million consumer units. Data is collected through both an Interview Survey (for large recurring expenses) and a Diary Survey (for small, frequent purchases). The 2025 full-year BLS CES data is expected in December 2026.

Bureau of Economic Analysis Personal Consumption Expenditures (BEA PCE): The national-level aggregate spending measure that includes expenditures made on behalf of consumers (like employer-provided health insurance). PCE is broader than the BLS CES and is updated monthly. The data cited in this article covers through January 2026.

US Census Bureau Retail Trade: Monthly and quarterly retail sales and e-commerce data. The Q4 2025 and full-year 2025 figures cited here are the most recently published Census retail trade releases.

National Retail Federation (NRF): Industry forecasts using an Oxford Economics econometric model, released March 2026. The 4.4% growth forecast is their baseline scenario.

Third-party sources: TD Economics (February 2026 K-shaped consumer analysis), Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (Hagler and Patki 2025, Y-14M credit card data), Deloitte ConsumerSignals (monthly consumer tracker, March 2026 release), YouGov (US Consumer Spending and Budgeting Trends in 2026, published March 2026), JP Morgan Research (consumer spending insights, 2025), and Upside Consumer Spend Report 2026.

All data in this article reflects the most recently published releases as of March 2026. When multiple years are available for the same metric, we use the most recent figure and note the year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is US consumer spending up or down in 2025-2026?

Consumer spending is up but growing more slowly than in the post-pandemic surge years. PCE grew approximately 2.7% in 2025 (TD Economics), and BEA data shows continued monthly gains of 0.4% in both December 2025 and January 2026. Spending is up in aggregate, but unequally distributed – high-income households are driving most of the growth.

What percentage of the US economy is consumer spending?

Consumer spending (personal consumption expenditures) accounts for approximately 68% of US GDP as of late 2025, according to BEA data. This is above the long-term average of about 64.4%, meaning consumer spending has become an even larger share of overall economic activity than it historically has been.

What do US consumers spend the most money on?

Housing is by far the largest spending category at 33.4% of total household expenditures ($25,266 per year for the average household in 2024). Transportation is second at 17.0% ($13,318), followed by food at 12.9% ($10,169) and personal insurance/pensions at 12.5% ($9,797), according to the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024.

What is the average American household expenditure per year?

The average US household spent $77,535 in 2024, up 1.8% from 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey (released December 2025). Average pre-tax income was $101,207, meaning the typical household spends about 77 cents of every dollar it earns.

How has inflation affected consumer spending categories?

Inflation has hit services harder than goods in 2025-2026. Food away from home rose 4.1%, healthcare services 6.7%, and energy 7.4%, while goods prices like new vehicles were essentially flat. The PCE price index was 2.8% year-over-year in January 2026 (BEA) – still above the Fed’s 2% target, with the most persistent pressure in services categories.

What is the difference between PCE and household expenditure data?

PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures, from BEA) measures all consumption at the national level, including spending made on behalf of consumers by employers and government (like Medicare payments). BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey data is household-level, capturing what families themselves report spending. PCE tends to be higher and broader; BLS CES data is more granular for understanding individual budget patterns.

How does consumer spending vary by income level?

Dramatically. The lowest income quintile of US households averages around $29,046 in annual expenditures, while the highest quintile averages $151,342 – more than five times as much. The composition also differs: lower-income households spend a higher share of their budget on necessities like food and housing, leaving less for discretionary categories.

What is the K-shaped consumer economy?

The K-shaped consumer economy describes the post-pandemic divergence in spending trajectories: upper-income households (the upper arm of the K) are spending more, driven by wealth gains from equity markets and real estate; lower-income households (the lower arm) are spending less or taking on more debt to maintain their spending. TD Economics and Federal Reserve research both document this pattern, with the top 20% of households holding 72% of total household wealth as of Q4 2025.

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