Consumer Spending by Generation Household Expenditures and Furniture Spending
March 16,
2018 by Jane Chero in General 
As Baby Boomers are aging out of prime furniture buying years, Generation X households have picked up the reigns with robust consumer spending – despite a much smaller population size. Couple the Gen Xers with the sheer population size of the Millennials and the future for the furniture and home furnishings industry looks promising. This is the fourth factoid in a series of five factoids giving a snapshot of the five adult generations using data from the 2016 Consumer Expenditure Survey. Average Household Expenditures and furniture spending is the focus of this factoid. *See Factoid 1 for generation birth years and ages
Household Expenditures
Although Baby Boomers account for a greater percentage of consumer spending, Generation X consumers spent more per household with an annual average expenditure of $68,532 in comparison to the $61,204 of Baby Boomers.
Furniture Spending
Staying in line with overall expenditures, Generation X also spent more money per household on Furniture Expenditures in 2016. At an average annual furniture expenditure of $920, Generation X spends on average 24 percent more than Baby Boomers and 26 percent more than Millennials. (Note: The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) projects total furniture industry expenditures at a lower rate than the Personal Consumer Expenditures (PCE) survey conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which is tied to the GDP. Mapping the CEX to the PCE reflects a more accurate picture of expenditures shown in the second chart.)
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey 2016
* Consumer Expenditure Survey 2016 mapped to Personal Consumer Expenditures Survey and Impact Consulting Services’ Furniture Core industry model