Updated August 4, 2026. Quick answer: the published mean overstates what a typical retired household spends by about 30% — the mean sits 1.28–1.32× the weighted median in every age cohort, and BLS does not publish the median. Every figure on this page is computed by Clear Money Guide from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Public-Use Microdata (Interview survey, 2024), n = 23,176 records, and is published as an open dataset under DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21786091. Free to cite with attribution.
Headline statistics
The published mean overstates the typical retired household by about 30%.
BLS publishes means. In every age cohort we computed, the mean sits well above the weighted median: 1.31× at 55–64, 1.28× at 65–74 and 1.32× at 75 and over. A skewed upper tail pulls the average away from the household in the middle, which is the household most readers have in mind.
$50,068 — median annual spending, age 65–74.
Against a mean of $64,232 for the same cohort. The median is not published by BLS; it is computed here from the microdata using the survey weights.
Mean spending falls 34% from the 55–64 cohort to the 75-and-over cohort.
$83,102 to $54,915. The median falls by a similar proportion, so this is not an artefact of the tail.
$37,322 — the gap between mean income before tax and mean outlay at 55–64.
It narrows sharply after retirement: $10,651 at 65–74. Income is falling toward spending rather than spending rising to meet income.
The full table
| Age of reference person | Mean spending | Median spending | Mean ÷ median | Housing share | Health share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55–64 | $83,102 | $63,323 | 1.31× | 29.7% | 7.6% |
| 65–74 | $64,232 | $50,068 | 1.28× | 31.8% | 11.7% |
| 75 and over | $54,915 | $41,548 | 1.32× | 36.7% | 13.9% |
Cohorts are defined by the age of the reference person. Standard errors are balanced-repeated-replication estimates from the survey’s 44 replicate weights (Fay k = 0.5); the mean total for 55–64 carries a standard error of $3,896.
How we know the computation is right
The obvious risk with microdata is a computation that quietly diverges from the publisher’s own figures. So the totals are reconciled against the published BLS table:
Our all-ages mean total is $77,914 against a published $78,535 in BLS Table 1300 — and each cohort reconciles to within about two per cent (0.9783 for 55–64). Where a category reconciles less closely, the ratio is published in the dataset rather than smoothed away.
The method was pre-registered before any estimate was computed, and three of its decisions turned out to be wrong. They are recorded as amendments rather than edited out — including one that was off by a factor of three and was caught by exactly this reconciliation step. The pre-registration and the amendments ship with the dataset.
Cite this data
Free to cite with attribution and a link. Suggested citation: “Retirement Spending Statistics,” Clear Money Guide, 2026, clearmoneyguide.com/retirement-spending-statistics/. The underlying dataset — cohort means, weighted medians, category shares, tenure splits and BRR standard errors — is open under DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21786091, CC BY 4.0, with the computation script and pre-registration included. Every statistic above has its own anchor — link to the number you are citing, not just the page.
What this page does not tell you
These are spending figures, not a recommendation. They describe what households in each age band actually spent in 2024; they do not tell you what you will need, because that depends on housing tenure, health, location and family size — the dataset splits by tenure for exactly that reason. The survey is the Interview component only. Figures are 2024 dollars and BLS republishes annually, so check the year stamp before citing.
Related
The rest of the owned-data library: the statistics index, probate cost statistics, advisor statistics, elder fraud statistics and retirement tax statistics.
Computed by Clear Money Guide from BLS Consumer Expenditure Public-Use Microdata, Interview survey 2024. Last verified 4 August 2026. General information, not financial advice. We sell nothing on this page and earn nothing from it.
All the numbers, kept current. This page uses 5 figures from our claims register — every figure we track is on one page, each with the year it applies to and a plain statement of what makes it move.
Chart from this page’s data — free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with the source drawn inside the image. The full chart library has the rest.
Reusing any of this? One licence covers all of it — free to reuse, adapt and republish, including commercially, with attribution. No permission needed. Figures we quote from the IRS, SSA, BLS or a state agency belong to their publishers and should be cited to them, with the data year.
The per-cohort breakdown behind these figures: how spending falls with age — mean household spending drops from $83,102 at 55–64 to $54,915 at 75 and over.