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Tradeoffs in the expenditure patterns of 

families with children

Evan Hubener

Economist

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

American Council on Consumer Interests

21 May 2019
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Background

 Article for Beyond the Numbers – bls.gov/opub/btn

 Consumer Expenditure Surveys – Public Use Microdata
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About the selected data

 CU’s with at least 1 child under 17 years

 Apparel includes boys’, girls’, and infants’

 Childcare includes daycare and babysitting

 Education expenditures largely supplemental

 Total expenditures refers to total expenditures on these three 

items
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Expenditures by region

 Midwest, West, Northeast, and South – compared to national 

averages (49 percent for childcare, 26 percent for apparel, 25 

percent for education)

 Not much fluctuation by region

Apparel between 23 and 27 percent

Childcare between 45 and 54 percent

Education between 23 and 29 percent
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Background
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Expenditures by income

 Apparel decreases from 61% of expenditures for quintile 1 

(lowest income quintile) to 15 percent of expenditures for 

quintile 5 (highest income quintile)

 Childcare ranges between 33 and 56 percent of expenditures

 Education ranges between 7 and 36 percent

Nearly doubles between quintiles 4 and 5
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Expenditures by race

 Public Use Microdata contains four race categories –

Asian and pacific islander, black, native American and multi-race, and 

white 

 Childcare roughly half of expenditure for all race categories

 More variation in education (range 14-29 percent) and apparel 

(20-37 percent)
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Expenditures by education

 Four categories of education –

less than high school, high school graduate, some college/associate’s 

degree, bachelor’s degree or higher

 Education level is that of the reference person

Not necessarily the highest level of education obtained by a given 

member of the household

 Apparel ranges 18 to 53 percent of expenditure (decreasing)

 Childcare ranges 32 to 53 percent of expenditures

 Education ranges 15 to 29 percent of expenditures
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Conclusions

 Expenditure shares for education ranged most widely by 

income (29 points), by race (15 points), and by education (14 

points)

 Expenditure shares for apparel ranged most widely by income 

(46 points) and education (36 points)

 Expenditure shares for childcare also ranged most widely by 

income (23 points) and education (21 points)
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Questions?
Contact Information

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Evan Hubener

Economist

Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys

www.bls.gov/cex

202-691-6892

Hubener.Evan@bls.gov