Vol. II, No. 2, March/April 2002
CONSUMERS INCREASE ENTERTAINMENT SPENDING
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics issues annual Consumer Expenditure Surveys based upon quarterly surveys and weekly expenditure diaries from 7,500 sample households. Earlier this year, the Bureau released results from the 2000 Survey.
2000 average expenditures, when adjusted for inflation, had only increased 1.7% per household compared to 1990. However, expenditures for the category "entertainment fees and admissions," which includes spending at destination entertainment and amusement facilities, increased 5.3% per household over 1990 when adjusted for inflation.
According to the US Census, the number of households grew 14.7% from 1990 to 2000. This means that total US spending for entertainment fees and admissions, when adjusted for inflation, increased 20.8% over the 10 year period (per household increase x nos. households increase).
Some other ten-year changes to per household spending found by the Consumer Expenditure Survey include:
- Food away from home -10.4%
- Food at home -8.9%
- Apparel -12.9%
- Health care +5.9%
- Education +18.1%
