2021 Consumer Expenditures Surveys — 2022-09-08

Average annual expenditures for all consumer units(1) in 2021 were $66,928, a 9.1-percent increase from 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) During the same period, the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) rose 4.7 percent, and average income before taxes increased 3.7 percent. The average annual expenditures of 2021 were broken down into fourteen major components, nine of which are shown in table B. The tenth category shown, �other expenditures,� is the aggregate of the five smallest components.(2) Overall, housing accounted for the highest share (33.8 percent), followed by transportation (16.4 percent), food (12.4 percent), and personal insurance and pensions (11.8 percent). Among the fourteen major components of household spending, the largest increase in expenditures was in entertainment (+22.7 percent), followed closely by a 22.3-percent rise in apparel and services spending. In contrast, only education expenditures decreased (-3.5 percent) from 2020 to 2021.