Consumer Income and Spending

Abstract

Rising population in conjunction with rising incomes will add up to a sizable growth in consumer demand over the next two decades. In that interval, real personal consumption expenditures will, like GNP, substantially more than double. Since the economy will be growing at a considerably faster pace than the population, there will also be a steady escalation in real per capita consumption. Currently, each American spends, on average, about $3,300 annually, but by 1990 this figure will be close to $6,000, in terms of today’s dollars. This anticipated improvement in living standards will be faster than experienced in the prior two decades, principally because, in the coming period, a larger proportion of the population will be of working age.