Cost of Living Statistics (2026)

The average US household spent $78,535 in 2024, up from $77,280 in 2023 (BLS). That single number captures everything from rent to groceries to gas.

The headline finding: housing and transportation together consumed 50% of the average household's budget. Half of every dollar spent went to keeping a roof overhead and getting around, before food, healthcare, or anything else.

The budget is dominated by a few large categories. Housing is by far the biggest at 33.4% of spending, followed by transportation (17.0%), food (12.9%), and personal insurance and pensions (12.5%) (see the chart and table below).

Everything else, healthcare, entertainment, apparel, education, splits the remaining quarter. Housing was also the only major category with a statistically significant increase in 2024, up 3.3%, which is why the squeeze feels housing-driven.

In dollar terms, housing costs the average household $26,266 a year, of which $16,317 is shelter (rent or mortgage), and transportation $13,318, split between vehicle purchases ($5,337), insurance and maintenance ($4,206), and gas ($2,644) (see the chart and table below).

Food adds up to $10,169, roughly 60% groceries and 40% restaurants. These four categories, housing, transport, food, and insurance/pensions, make up about three-quarters of all spending.

Housing is where the cost-of-living crunch bites hardest. Median gross rent reached $1,487 a month in 2024, and homeowners with a mortgage paid a median $2,035 (see the table below).

Crucially, nearly half of renters (49.7%, about 21 million households) are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of income on housing, and 24% of homeowners are too. The standard advice to keep housing under 30% of income is one that half of renters simply cannot meet.

Transportation is the second-biggest cost at $13,318 a year, and it is easy to underestimate. Beyond gas ($2,644), the big drivers are vehicle purchases ($5,337) and the ongoing cost of insurance, maintenance, and fees ($4,206).

Because it's 17% of the budget, transportation is one of the most controllable big levers: a paid-off, reliable car and a shorter commute can free up thousands a year, far more than trimming small discretionary spending.

Food costs the average household $10,169 a year: $6,224 on groceries and $3,945 on restaurants and delivery. Eating out accounts for nearly 40% of the food budget.

For a family of four, the USDA's moderate-cost food plan runs about $1,387 a month. Food inflation has cooled from its 2022 highs but groceries and restaurants both remain meaningfully more expensive than pre-pandemic, part of the broader inflation story.

Healthcare is a large and rising cost, much of it hidden in premiums. Employer-sponsored family coverage averaged $25,572 in 2024 and nearly $27,000 in 2025, with workers paying about $6,850 of the family premium out of pocket (see the table below).

On top of premiums, households spent about $6,197 a year on healthcare directly (insurance plus out-of-pocket medical). Deductibles add another layer: the average single deductible was about $1,787. Healthcare costs are a major reason budgets feel tighter than incomes suggest.

For families with young children, childcare is a budget-breaker. The national average price was $13,128 a year in 2024, up $1,546 from 2023, and center-based infant care averaged about $17,836, exceeding $20,000 in some states.

The scale is striking: in 41 states plus DC, average infant care cost more than in-state public university tuition. Childcare prices rose 29% over five years, outpacing overall inflation and pushing many parents out of the workforce.

Where you live changes the math dramatically. On the BEA's price index (US average = 100), California is the priciest state at 112.6, followed by DC, New Jersey, and Hawaii, while Arkansas (86.5), Mississippi, and South Dakota are cheapest (see the chart and table below).

At the metro level the gap is wider still: $100 buys only about $84.58 of goods in the San Francisco Bay Area but $124.49 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, roughly 47% more purchasing power for the same dollar.

Stacking the major line items shows why budgets feel stretched (see the table below). A family renting, insuring their health through an employer, and paying for childcare can easily face $25,000+ in rent, $25,000+ in health premiums, and $13,000+ in childcare, before food, transportation, or savings.

By one modeled estimate, a family of four needs about $235,000 a year to live comfortably across major US cities, over $300,000 in the priciest ones. (These comfortable-income figures are assumption-driven models, not hard data, but they illustrate the scale.)

The cost of living has climbed sharply this decade. Cumulatively, prices are up about 29.5% since 2020, so the same basket that cost $100 then costs about $129 now.

Even as the annual inflation rate cools, the price level does not fall, which is why households still feel squeezed. See our inflation statistics page for the full breakdown of how fast prices are rising by category.

The squeeze is real but uneven. Total household spending rose 5.9% in 2023 and housing costs kept climbing in 2024, while wage growth only recently caught up with inflation.

The households feeling it most are renters (half of whom are cost-burdened), families with young children, and anyone in a high-cost metro. The same income buys very different lifestyles depending on housing status, family size, and location.

The data points to where the leverage is. Because housing and transportation are half the budget, they are where good decisions matter most: living somewhat below your housing means and avoiding expensive car payments frees up far more than cutting small luxuries.

A useful framework is the 50/30/20 rule, 50% of after-tax income to needs, 30% to wants, 20% to savings and debt paydown. And because cost of living varies ~30% by state and far more by metro, geography is one of the biggest financial levers available: the same salary can mean a tight budget in San Francisco and a comfortable one in Arkansas.