Money
How Americans Make and Spend Their Money, by Age Group
If you’re like most people, your income and spending changes significantly as you get older.
In the most common career trajectory, earlier years coincide with a lower salary as skills and experience grow. Then, peak earning years are achieved in late adulthood, and eventually retirement comes onto the horizon.
Is this typical earnings arc supported by data?
Income and Spending, by Age
The data visualizations in today’s post come to us from Engaging Data and they use Sankey diagrams to display data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showing differences in how various age groups in America earn and spend their money.
The four charts below will show household data based on the age of the primary resident:
- Less than 25 years old (Very early career)
- Between 25-34 years old (Early career)
- Between 45-54 years old (Peak earning and spending)
- More than 75 years old (Retirement)
Let’s take a look at the collection of data, to see how it shakes out.
Less than 25 Years Old – $31,102 in spending (94.6%% of total income)
These contain an average of 1.9 people (1.3 income earners, 0.3 children, and 0.0 seniors)
For the average household with a primary resident under 25 years old, total income is $32,893.
The biggest expense is housing (24.3% of spending), followed by vehicles (10.8%), gas and insurance (9.3%), food at home (7.7%), and dining out (7.6%). For this younger cohort, education is also a significant expense at $2,333 per year (7.5% of spending).
Between 25-34 Years – $48,928 in spending (70.8% of total income)
These contain an average of 2.8 people (1.5 income earners, 1.0 children, and 0.0 seniors)
In this age range, earning potential starts to rapidly expand with experience – and households make double that of the previous category (Under 25 years old).
Housing remains the biggest expense (25.9% of spending), followed by gas and insurance (9.2%), household expenses (8.2%), food at home (8.1%), and then vehicles (8.1%).
Between 45-54 Years – $64,781 in spending (64.6% of total income)
These contain an average of 2.8 people (1.7 income earners, 0.7 children, and 0.1 seniors)
This age range is notable because it has both the highest income and the highest spending. It also represents a time of peak savings, with the average household stashing away $19,159 per year.
Expenses are similar to the previous category. Housing is the biggest expense (22.0%), followed by gas and insurance (9.0%), food at home (7.9%), vehicles (7.9%), and household expenses (6.7%).
Over 75 Years Old – $40,211 in spending (95.6% of total income)
These contain an average of 2.6 people (0.2 income earners, 0.0 children, and 1.4 seniors)
Not surprisingly, here we see salary contributing just $7,891 per year to total income, with social security supplementing income with $25,057 per year.
For this older segment, health insurance (8.2%) jumps up to become the second most important expense. Meanwhile, driving and housing both drop in their respective allocations.
The Typical Earning Arc?
The data confirms that conventional wisdom around the typical earning trajectory for Americans seems pretty accurate.
For more breakdowns, check out how Americans spend their money based on income levels or education levels.
Did you find any surprising anomalies in the numbers?
Money
Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation
This graphic illustrates the amount of U.S. currency in circulation globally, by denomination, based on data from the Federal Reserve.
Visualizing All of the U.S. Currency in Circulation
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Have you ever wondered how much U.S. currency is in circulation?
Every year, the U.S. Federal Reserve submits a print order for U.S. currency to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). The BEP will then print billions of notes in various denominations, from $1 bills to $100 bills.
In this graphic, we’ve used the latest Federal Reserve data to visualize the approximate number of bills for each denomination globally, as of Dec. 31, 2022.
Breakdown of U.S. Currency in Circulation
The following table lists all of the data we used to create the visualization above. Note that value figures were rounded for simplicity.
Type of Bill | Number of notes in circulation (billions) | Value ($B) |
---|---|---|
$1 | 14.3 | $14B |
$2 | 1.5 | $3B |
$5 | 3.5 | $18B |
$10 | 2.3 | $23B |
$20 | 11.5 | $230B |
$50 | 2.5 | $125B |
$100 | 18.5 | $1,850B |
$500-10,000* | 0.0004 | n/a |
*$500-10,000 bills are listed as a range, and a total circulation of 0.0004 billion. Not included in graphic.
From these numbers, we can see that $100 bills are the most common bill in circulation, even ahead of $1 bills.
One reason for this is $100 bills have a longer lifespan than smaller denominations, due to people using $100 bills less often for transactions. Some businesses may also decline $100 bills as payment.
Based on 2018 estimates from the Federal Reserve, a $100 bill has a lifespan of over 20 years, which is significantly higher than $1 bills (7 years) and $5 bills (5 years).
If you’re interested in more visualizations on the U.S. dollar, consider this animated chart which shows how the dollar overtook the British pound as the world’s most prominent reserve currency.
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