The Bottom 40% of U.S. Households Spend More Than They Earn

The bottom 10% of U.S. households spend $31,660 per year on an average income of $9,612. That’s 329% of their income.

The top 10% spend $179,513 on $346,942. That’s 52%.

We broke down the latest BLS Consumer Expenditure data (2024 survey year) by income decile. The dividing line between spending more than you earn and actually running a surplus falls right around the 5th decile, somewhere between $57,000 and $74,000 in household income.

Here’s the full picture:

Income Group	Income Range	Avg Income	Avg Spending	% of Income	Surplus / Deficit
Bottom 10%	Less than $17,492	$9,612	$31,660	329%	-$22,048
2nd decile	$17,492 to $29,930	$23,805	$38,473	162%	-$14,668
3rd decile	$29,931 to $42,591	$36,188	$46,340	128%	-$10,152
4th decile	$42,592 to $57,449	$49,681	$53,778	108%	-$4,097
5th decile	$57,450 to $73,995	$65,170	$62,880	96%	+$2,290
6th decile	$73,996 to $94,510	$83,760	$70,913	85%	+$12,847
7th decile	$94,511 to $120,108	$106,439	$81,716	77%	+$24,723
8th decile	$120,109 to $155,926	$136,502	$98,158	72%	+$38,344
9th decile	$155,927 to $218,869	$182,587	$121,317	66%	+$61,270
Top 10%	$218,870 and above	$346,942	$179,513	52%	+$167,429

The bottom 10% overshoot their income by $22,048 per year. Some of that is retirees drawing down savings, students on loans, or transfer payments the BLS doesn’t fully capture. But it’s still a staggering gap.

The 5th decile’s surplus is $2,290 on $65,170. A 3.5% margin. That’s not a lot of room for anything to go wrong. (You can see exactly where your household income falls with the Income Percentile Calculator.)

The top 10% keeps $167,429 per year. That surplus alone is larger than the total income of the bottom 60%.

Where It All Goes

Four categories eat most of the budget at the bottom: housing, food, transportation, and healthcare. For the bottom 10%, those four account for 81.2% of all spending. For the top 10%, 62.4%.

That 19 percentage point gap is where financial flexibility lives.

Category	Bottom 10%	3rd Decile	5th Decile	7th Decile	Top 10%
Housing	42.0%	39.3%	36.3%	34.3%	29.3%
Food	16.8%	14.8%	13.7%	13.5%	10.8%
Transportation	13.7%	16.3%	17.9%	16.8%	16.5%
Healthcare	8.7%	9.9%	8.4%	8.5%	5.8%
Insurance & Pensions	1.4%	4.6%	8.3%	11.9%	19.4%
Entertainment	3.6%	4.2%	4.2%	4.4%	5.1%
Education	3.7%	1.1%	0.9%	1.4%	3.5%
Tobacco	1.1%	0.8%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%

Housing takes 42% of the bottom 10%‘s budget. For the top 10%, it’s 29.3%.

The insurance and pensions row is the savings gap in a single number. The bottom 10% puts $455 per year toward retirement and life insurance. The top 10% puts $34,737. That’s 76 times more. At 19.4% of their budget, it’s the top 10%‘s second-largest category after housing.

The Multiplier Table

Here are all 14 BLS spending categories ranked by how much more the top 10% spends compared to the bottom 10%:

Category	Bottom 10%	Top 10%	Multiplier
Insurance & Pensions	$455	$34,737	76.3x
Reading	$46	$383	8.3x
Cash Contributions	$687	$5,552	8.1x
Entertainment	$1,144	$9,185	8.0x
Alcoholic Beverages	$249	$1,798	7.2x
Transportation	$4,341	$29,636	6.8x
Personal Care	$369	$2,115	5.7x
Education	$1,169	$6,207	5.3x
Miscellaneous	$498	$2,497	5.0x
Apparel	$997	$4,719	4.7x
Housing	$13,295	$52,604	4.0x
Healthcare	$2,755	$10,476	3.8x
Food	$5,311	$19,352	3.6x
Tobacco	$344	$252	0.7x

Tobacco is the only category in the entire survey where the bottom 10% outspends the top 10%. Every other line item, without exception, the wealthiest households spend more in absolute dollars.

Within entertainment, the subcategory “fees and admissions” (concerts, sporting events, gym memberships, theme parks) has an 17.8x multiplier: $3,606 vs. $203. That’s the widest gap of any subcategory in the entire survey.

One other thing worth flagging: the bottom 10% spends $1,169 on education, more than the 2nd through 5th deciles ($322 to $573 range). These are likely students with low current income paying tuition. Their spending is high because they’re investing in moving up.

Who’s Actually in These Groups

The bottom two deciles are older and smaller. Most households in the bottom 10% have no one working, and the average age is 53.6. The 2nd decile is even older at 60.7. A lot of these are retirees.

By the 5th decile, most households have one earner. By the top, most have two. That’s the main thing separating high-income households from everyone else: a second working adult, not one person earning a huge salary.

Decile	Avg Age	Household Size	Earners per Household
Bottom 10%	53.6	1.6 people	Mostly zero
2nd decile	60.7	1.6 people	Mostly zero
5th decile	51.7	2.3 people	About one
7th decile	48.7	2.8 people	About two
Top 10%	49.4	3.2 people	About two

Methodology

Data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024 survey year (published December 2025), Table 1110. The BLS tracks spending across approximately 135,760 thousand consumer units through diary surveys and quarterly interviews.

“Consumer unit” is BLS’s term for a household: families, single people living alone, or financially independent individuals sharing a household. Income is measured before taxes and includes wages, Social Security, and pensions, but doesn’t capture all transfer payments or non-cash benefits. That’s part of why spending exceeds income for the bottom deciles.

All figures verified against the original BLS workbook.

See Where You Land

The Income Percentile Calculator shows where your household falls by ZIP code, city, county, or state. The Take-Home Pay Calculator breaks down your paycheck after federal and state taxes. And the Budget Tool can help you see where your own dollars are going.

How much you earn is only part of the equation. Federal Reserve data shows that Americans who understand 3 basic financial concepts have 12x the median net worth — even at the same income level. Understanding your money matters as much as earning it.

The same data also shows the committed side of the story: Americans who carry credit card debt aren’t reckless — they’re committed to roughly twice as much long-term debt (cars, student loans) as people who pay in full, which is what eats the cash flow before any “unusual” year hits.