U.S. Consumer Spending Tracker

Tracker Overview:

Morning Consult’s U.S. Consumer Spending tracker provides a detailed assessment of U.S. households’ self-reported expenditures as well as spending allocation. The data complements the topline view presented by government agencies by providing a direct consumer perspective and demographic detail on a monthly basis. Businesses and investors rely on this tracker to understand emerging trends in consumer demand, purchasing power and shopping patterns across demographics.

Morning Consult’s consumer spending data is one of many sources for tracking consumer purchasing behaviors, thus fulfilling a similar role as government data sources such as Monthly Advance Retail Sales (MARTs) or Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) and Consumer Expenditures (CE).

To evaluate how Morning Consult's data compares to these datasets and the methods used to compile the data, please consult the latest benchmarking article.

Additional Notes:

It is important to note that the averages for each category take into account those who selected "did not spend/purchase" for that category as we seek to estimate an average representative spending level per household, per month. Additionally, we remove outliers by utilizing the trimmed means method to reduce volatility and preserve representativeness of the average consumer’s spending.

Data Access:

While we mainly display spending for categories by household income in this tracker page, subscribers to MC Pro+ are encouraged to download interactive Excel dashboards to analyze changes over time and compare changes for different categories and demographic groups.

Two sets of dashboard files allow users to compare: Two categories (for example housing and groceries) overtime by a selected demographic or for the selected category (for example personal care services), comparison among four demographic groups overtime