Contents
- Restaurant versus grocery spending statistics in the 2025 U.S. household survey
- Restaurant versus grocery spending statistics across the 2020–2023 pandemic period
- Restaurant versus grocery spending statistics by food-service outlet
- Restaurant versus grocery spending statistics by grocery outlet
- Restaurant versus grocery spending by U.S. region and metro
- restaurant versus grocery spending: Restaurant versus grocery price and inflation-adjusted spending trends
- Sources
Restaurant versus grocery spending statistics in the 2025 U.S. household survey
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Expenditure Survey reports mean annual expenditures for U.S. consumer units. A consumer unit is the survey’s spending unit; these figures are not totals for every household or per-person averages. In 2025, the mean consumer unit spent $6,491 on food at home and $4,142 on food away from home. The broader food category totaled $10,633. These are nominal annual amounts, so they describe dollars spent, not inflation-adjusted quantities of food.
| 2025 mean annual expenditure per U.S. consumer unit | Amount |
|---|---|
| Food at home | $6,491 |
| Food away from home | $4,142 |
| Food | $10,633 |
The BLS also reported that food accounted for 13.0% of average total expenditures in 2025. That is a share of all consumer-unit spending, while the amounts above are dollars within the food category. The two measures answer different questions: one places food in the overall household budget, and the others divide food spending by where it is consumed.
Within food-at-home spending, the survey recorded $1,579 for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, and $741 for cereals and bakery products. These are subcategories of food at home, not additional categories to add on top of the $6,491 total. Mean annual food-at-home spending rose 4.3% from 2024 to 2025; food-away-from-home spending rose 5.0% over the same period. Those changes apply to nominal mean expenditure per consumer unit.
BLS noted that the 2025 survey did not collect data in October and November because of a lapse in federal appropriations. It used a weight adjustment to address the missing data. This collection detail matters when interpreting the annual survey, but does not change the categories or units in the reported table. Source: BLS Consumer Expenditures Summary, 2025
Restaurant versus grocery spending statistics across the 2020–2023 pandemic period
The BLS series shows annual mean spending per U.S. consumer unit for both food-at-home and food-away-from-home categories. For food at home, the reported amounts were $4,935 in 2020, $5,259 in 2021, $5,703 in 2022, and $6,053 in 2023. Food-away-from-home spending was $2,375 in 2020, $3,030 in 2021, $3,639 in 2022, and $3,933 in 2023.
| Calendar year | Food at home | Food away from home |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $4,935 | $2,375 |
| 2021 | $5,259 | $3,030 |
| 2022 | $5,703 | $3,639 |
| 2023 | $6,053 | $3,933 |
These are nominal annual averages, not inflation-adjusted spending. They track reported dollars per consumer unit across the period; the table alone does not establish why the amounts changed. In 2023, total food spending averaged $9,985 per consumer unit. That figure covers the food category in the same survey, rather than a separate measure of restaurant or grocery purchases. Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditures in 2023
Restaurant versus grocery spending statistics by food-service outlet
The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) defines food away from home (FAFH) as prepared meals and snacks for immediate consumption. Its Food Expenditure Series uses purchaser and outlet categories that differ from the BLS consumer-unit averages. ERS reported that FAFH represented 56.3% of total U.S. food expenditures in 2025, while food at home (FAH)—packaged food for off-premise consumption—represented 43.7%. These are nominal shares of total food expenditures, not shares of a typical household budget.
Within FAFH, limited-service restaurants accounted for 36.5% of spending in 2025, and full-service restaurants accounted for 34.5%. Together, the 2 restaurant types represented 71.0% of FAFH spending. Other FAFH establishments made up 29.0%. Those categories describe the distribution of food-away-from-home spending by outlet, rather than the division between food at home and away from home.
ERS also presents inflation-adjusted aggregate sales in constant 2025 dollars. Food-service outlets recorded $1.41 trillion in sales in 2025. Within that broad market, full-service establishments recorded $488.4 billion and limited-service establishments $516.1 billion. These sales totals use a different measure from the nominal outlet shares above: they are inflation-adjusted national aggregates, not average outlays per consumer unit. Source: USDA ERS, Food Service Industry: Market Segments
Restaurant versus grocery spending statistics by grocery outlet
ERS reports food-at-home outlet shares as nominal percentages. In 2025, grocery stores accounted for 56.2% of food-at-home expenditures. Warehouse clubs and supercenters represented 26.4%; other food-at-home outlets accounted for 17.4%. Within the described outlet categories, convenience stores contributed 1.2% of food-at-home sales and other non-food retailers, such as drugstores and dollar stores, contributed 11.1%.
The historical comparisons show a different distribution in 1997. Grocery stores accounted for 72.2% of food-at-home sales that year, compared with 56.2% in 2025. Warehouse clubs and supercenters represented 9.4% in 1997, compared with 26.4% in 2025. Other food-at-home outlets accounted for 18.4% in 1997 and 17.4% in 2025. The figures describe shares of nominal sales; they do not show inflation-adjusted dollar growth.
For a sales-value comparison, ERS reports inflation-adjusted outlet sales in constant 2025 dollars. Grocery-store food sales reached $617 billion in 2025, while warehouse-club and supercenter food sales reached $289 billion. The values are aggregate U.S. food sales at those outlet types, not household averages. Source: USDA ERS, Retailing & Wholesaling: Retail Trends
Restaurant versus grocery spending by U.S. region and metro
BLS regional estimates for the 2023–24 survey period report mean annual food spending per consumer unit. The table below compares the national mean and the four regions for both food at home and food away from home. Keeping both categories side by side makes the regional figures interpretable without mixing them with outlet sales shares or national totals.
| Area | Food at home | Food away from home |
|---|---|---|
| United States | $6,139 | Not reported here |
| Northeast | $7,029 | $4,240 |
| Midwest | $5,931 | $3,721 |
| South | $5,445 | $3,483 |
| West | $6,852 | $4,708 |
The U.S. mean for total food spending was $10,077 per consumer unit. The regional estimates are means for the 2023–24 survey period, not calendar-year 2025 figures. The selected observations show the highest food-at-home mean among these four regions in the Northeast and the highest food-away-from-home mean in the West. They describe regional averages; they do not indicate what every consumer unit in a region spent. Source: BLS, Consumer Expenditures for the U.S., Regions, and Selected Metropolitan Areas
restaurant versus grocery spending: Restaurant versus grocery price and inflation-adjusted spending trends
Price changes and real spending changes measure different things. ERS reported that average U.S. food-at-home prices rose 11.4% in 2022, 5.1% in 2023, and 1.2% in 2024. Food-away-from-home prices rose 7.6% in 2022, 7.1% in 2023, and 4.1% in 2024. Each percentage is an annual average price change relative to the previous year, not household expenditure growth.
| Annual average U.S. price change | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food at home | 11.4% | 5.1% | 1.2% |
| Food away from home | 7.6% | 7.1% | 4.1% |
ERS also reported changes in inflation-adjusted spending. Real food-at-home spending declined 2.6% in 2023, then increased 1.8% in 2024. Real food-away-from-home spending grew 3.0% in 2023 and 0.4% in 2024. These figures indicate changes after adjusting spending for inflation; they are not price-index changes and should not be read as nominal dollar amounts.
For 2025, ERS reported that U.S. food-at-home prices increased 2.3% compared with 2024. This price statistic is separate from BLS’s 4.3% rise in mean nominal food-at-home expenditure per consumer unit from 2024 to 2025. One measures average prices; the other measures dollars spent per consumer unit. The figures therefore provide complementary context, but do not by themselves identify what drove the spending change. Sources: USDA ERS, Food Price Inflation and Real Spending Trends; USDA ERS, U.S. Food-at-Home Prices in 2025
Sources
- Consumer Expenditures Summary - 2025 A01 Results
- Consumer expenditures in 2023
- Food Service Industry - Market Segments
- Retailing & Wholesaling - Retail Trends
- Consumer Expenditures for the U.S., regions, and selected metropolitan areas
- As food price inflation slowed in 2024, inflation-adjusted food spending rebounded
- U.S. food-at-home prices increased 2.3 percent in 2025, compared with 2024