BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey figures offer a consistent way to examine grocery spending, provided the measure is read carefully. The latest national annual observation in this dataset is for 2025: U.S. consumer units averaged $6,491 in food-at-home expenditures. That is an annual mean for a statistical spending unit, not a median household bill or an individual’s grocery budget. Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditures Summary—2025
The comparisons below keep food purchased for home consumption separate from food away from home, and distinguish annual mean dollars from prices and other measures. The national series runs through 2025, and the food-category figures compare 2024 and 2025; the income, size and age examples are historical 2023 observations. Regional figures cover several explicitly different periods.
Contents
- household grocery spending statistics: National grocery spending through 2025
- household grocery spending statistics: Income-quintile comparisons from the 2023 survey
- household grocery spending statistics: Grocery spending by consumer-unit size in 2023
- household grocery spending: Age-of-reference-person comparisons in 2023
- household grocery spending: Regional and urban-area spending: separate survey periods
- household grocery spending: What grocery spending covered in 2024 and 2025
- Sources
household grocery spending statistics: National grocery spending through 2025
The BLS reports average annual food-at-home expenditures per consumer unit. Its national series in the cited annual reports spans calendar years 2019 through 2025. The values are nominal dollars: they describe spending amounts in each year, without adjusting the figures here for changes in prices. The series therefore is not a grocery-price index and does not, by itself, show how quantities or purchasing power changed. Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditures Summary—2025; Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2024; Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
| Calendar year | Annual mean food-at-home spending per consumer unit |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $4,643 |
| 2020 | $4,935 |
| 2021 | $5,259 |
| 2022 | $5,703 |
| 2023 | $6,053 |
| 2024 | $6,224 |
| 2025 | $6,491 |
Source: BLS annual Consumer Expenditure Survey reports and 2025 release; each entry is annual mean dollars per consumer unit for the stated calendar year.
These are seven separate annual means, not monthly or weekly amounts. No monthly conversion is needed to understand the published measure, and none is presented here. The figures also are not medians: a mean represents the average across the population represented by the survey, while a median would identify a midpoint. The published values are population means rather than averages restricted to survey respondents who reported an expenditure. Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditure Surveys glossary; Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditure Surveys Tables
“Consumer unit” is not synonymous with “household.” BLS defines consumer units to include families, financially independent people living alone or sharing a household, and people living together who share major expenses. A physical household and a consumer unit can therefore describe different groupings. The table should be read as spending per consumer unit, not as a direct measure of every household’s grocery bill or per-person spending. Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditure Surveys glossary
household grocery spending statistics: Income-quintile comparisons from the 2023 survey
The income figures below are historical 2023 annual means, not the latest available subgroup estimates. They classify consumer units into income quintiles, or fifths based on income before taxes. Each fifth is a group of consumer units; it should not be interpreted as an equal fifth of the U.S. population or an equal number of people. Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023; Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditure Surveys glossary
| 2023 income quintile | Annual mean food-at-home spending per consumer unit |
|---|---|
| Lowest | $3,707 |
| Second | $4,680 |
| Third | $5,756 |
| Fourth | $6,917 |
| Highest | $9,198 |
Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023; calendar-year 2023 annual means.
The figures describe average spending within each income-ranked consumer-unit group. They do not show that income alone explains the differences: the categories also contain varied consumer-unit sizes and other characteristics, and the observations are cross-sectional. These are nominal annual dollars, not price-adjusted amounts or per-person comparisons. Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
household grocery spending statistics: Grocery spending by consumer-unit size in 2023
The 2023 size comparison is another historical set of annual means. In the table, size refers to the number of people in the consumer unit, not necessarily the number of people in a physical household. Total spending across sizes is not a per-person measure; the BLS values shown here are dollars per consumer unit. Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023; Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditure Surveys glossary
| People in consumer unit | Annual mean food-at-home spending per consumer unit, 2023 |
|---|---|
| One | $3,497 |
| Two | $5,745 |
| Three | $7,351 |
| Four | $8,634 |
| Five or more | $9,713 |
Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023; calendar-year annual means.
The table presents the reported group averages, not a schedule for estimating an individual family’s likely spending. Consumer-unit size and income, age, and location can overlap; the data do not isolate the effect of any one characteristic. These subgroup observations should be read as descriptions of 2023 groups, not as evidence that unit size caused a particular spending level. Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
household grocery spending: Age-of-reference-person comparisons in 2023
BLS age categories refer to the consumer unit’s reference person, identified in relation to ownership or rental of the dwelling. They do not assign every member of the unit to the reference person’s age group. The amounts are annual mean food-at-home spending per consumer unit in 2023. Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023; Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditure Surveys glossary
| Reference person’s age | Annual mean food-at-home spending per consumer unit, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Under 25 | $3,149 |
| 25–34 | $5,537 |
| 35–44 | $7,211 |
| 45–54 | $7,639 |
| 55–64 | $6,324 |
| 65 and older | $4,973 |
| 65–74 | $5,432 |
| 75 and older | $4,321 |
Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023; all values are calendar-year annual means. The 65-and-older aggregate overlaps the 65–74 and 75-and-older groups and must not be added to them.
The broad 65-and-older observation and the two narrower older-age observations are separate views of overlapping age groups. The broader average is not an additional, independent category. As with the income and size tables, these 2023 figures describe group means and do not establish why the values differ. Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
household grocery spending: Regional and urban-area spending: separate survey periods
Geographic comparisons require particular care because the reported observations do not all cover the same period or use the same grouping. The first table shows annual 2023 regional means alongside a 2023–24 two-year annual mean. The latter is an annual average for the two-year period, not a combined two-year spending total. These are separate survey-period observations, not matched groups for measuring growth. Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023; Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditures for the U.S., regions, and selected metropolitan areas
| Region or comparison | 2023 annual mean | 2023–24 two-year annual mean |
|---|---|---|
| Northeast | $6,892 | $7,029 |
| Midwest | $6,015 | $5,931 |
| South | $5,386 | $5,445 |
| West | $6,592 | $6,852 |
| United States | — | $6,139 |
Sources: BLS 2023 report for calendar-year 2023; BLS selected-areas table for the 2023–24 annual mean. Amounts are annual mean dollars per consumer unit.
The South also has a separately reported 2025 annual observation: $5,280 in mean food-at-home spending per consumer unit. It should not be compared with the 2023–24 two-year annual mean as if both were a matched series; the periods differ. The reported observations do not support a regional growth or cost-of-living conclusion. Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditures in the South Region—2025
A different 2023 breakdown separates consumer units outside urban areas from all urban consumer units, then lists urban population-size groups. Outside-urban units averaged $6,055 annually, while all urban units averaged $6,052. Within the urban breakdown, areas below 100,000 population averaged $5,260; areas of 100,000–249,999 averaged $5,759; areas of 250,000–999,999 averaged $5,986; areas of 1,000,000–2,499,999 averaged $5,950; areas of 2,500,000–4,999,999 averaged $6,767; and areas of at least 5,000,000 averaged $6,289. Every amount is a 2023 annual mean per consumer unit. Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
These urban-size groups are not a separate timeline and should not be read as evidence that population size determines spending. Geography and other consumer-unit characteristics overlap, and the survey comparisons do not by themselves establish a cause for observed differences. Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
household grocery spending: What grocery spending covered in 2024 and 2025
In the Consumer Expenditure Survey, food at home concerns purchases at grocery stores and similar venues. Food away from home is a distinct category. “Grocery spending” here therefore means food-at-home expenditure, not all meals or all items bought at a supermarket; the food category does not include every household good sold there. The amounts below retain the BLS category labels and are annual means per U.S. consumer unit. Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditures Summary—2025; Source: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2024
| Food-at-home category | 2024 annual mean | 2025 annual mean |
|---|---|---|
| Cereals and bakery products | $779 | $741 |
| Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs | $1,414 | $1,579 |
| Dairy products | $631 | $644 |
| Fruits and vegetables | $953 | $988 |
| Other food at home | $2,447 | $2,539 |
Sources: BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2024 and Consumer Expenditures Summary—2025; calendar-year annual means per consumer unit. Published figures are rounded to dollars, so component values may differ slightly from the reported total.
The total food-at-home measure and its components are nominal expenditure amounts, not price changes. A change in annual spending cannot be treated as an equivalent change in grocery prices. The category means also are not medians or individual-level budgets. As rounded published values, the five component amounts may not reconcile exactly to the overall total; no adjustment is made here. Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditure Surveys Tables; Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditure Surveys glossary
Sources
- Consumer Expenditures Summary — 2025
- Consumer expenditures in 2024
- Consumer expenditures in 2023
- Consumer Expenditures for the U.S., regions, and selected metropolitan areas
- Consumer Expenditures in the South Region — 2025
- Consumer Expenditure Surveys Tables
- BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys glossary