Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Household Spending Stats

The results of the latest Statistics Canada survey of household spending have just been released. Canadian households spent an average of $53,016 on all types of goods and services in 2010. Of this total, shelter accounted for 28.3% of spending, transportation for 20.7%, and food, 14.0%. Spending on clothing represented 6.5% of the total, health care, 4.1%, and communications, 3.3%. This information might be key to understanding your customers’ buying behaviour. If your business doesn’t sell products or services in any of these “necessities”, you’ll be glad to know that, in Ontario, the spending in these categories tallies to just 71.2%, leaving 28.8% for “miscellaneous”, perhaps including the goods and services you offer.


It is important to note that distribution of spending by income group varies greatly. For example, shelter costs for the lowest income group represent 51.8% of spending (total spending is $28,583.) The group with the highest income spent $139,001, with just 29.5% going to food, shelter and clothing – with this group, “just 29%” is still a robust $41,005 though.

Canadian homeowners spent an average of $17,268 on shelter, but Ontario had the highest share at 30.4% of total spending; costs are related to the size of the population centre, so naturally the GTA’s average would be higher than rural and all other metropolitan areas elsewhere in Canada.

Ontario households spent an average of $11,529 on transportation in 2010, and couples with children spent three times what one-person households spend, not surprisingly.

Canadian households reported spending an average of $7,443 on food in 2010. This total consisted of $5,377 on average spent on food from stores and the remaining $2,066 for restaurant meals. Considering lifestyles, it is not surprising to find that seniors spend more on store purchases, while those under 30 years old have the highest share of spending at restaurants.

Consider your customers and their demographics. How might their consumer spending levels/habits impact your business? Study the newest report on Canadian Household Spending, available at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/120425/dq120425a-eng.htm and look at detailed spending by income group and province, to learn more about your customers.

Source:  The Daily, April 25/12  http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/120425/dq120425a-eng.htm

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