The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released the average annual expenditures for households in the United States for 2020. Although incomes increased by 1.8% from 2019 to 2020, spending decreased by 2.7% over the same period, with the average household containing 2.5 people earning a total of $84,352 and spending $61,334 annually.
About 94% of all household expenditures occur in a small number of nearly universal categories, most of which were affected by the pandemic. Among these categories, spending on housing increased by 3.5% to $21,409 when comparing 2019 to 2020, with spending also increasing for personal insurance or pensions (+1.1% to $7,246), and cash contributions (+14.4% to $2,283). During the same period, average household spending decreased for transportation (-8.5% to $9,826), food (-10.4% to $7,316), healthcare (- 0.3% to $5,177), entertainment (-5.8% to $2,912), and apparel or services (-23.8% to $1,434).
Some of the more interesting changes in spending occurred in niche categories that make up the remaining 6% of household expenditures. For example, only 1.5% of participants spent money on outdoor equipment during the study period, yet average spending for all households in this category increased by 440% from 2019 to 2020.
The same phenomena happened for the categories below. Relatively few households spent in these categories, yet their spending pulled the average up by quite a lot. Rank the following niche categories from largest to smallest increase from 2019 to 2020:
A. Computers and computer hardware for nonbusiness use
B. Indoor plants or fresh flowers
C. Lawn and garden equipment
D. Office furniture for home use
E. Outdoor equipment
