Insights » 2023 U.S. Household Bill Pay Market Size & Category Breakout

2023 U.S. Household Bill Pay Market Size & Category Breakout

Today, we released our 2023 U.S. Bill Pay Market Size & Category Breakout Report revealing that of the $3.87 trillion that Americans spend annually on household bills, $3.22 trillion falls within ten essential bill payment categories, comprising nearly three quarters of all U.S. consumer spending. In this report, statistical analysis of actual household payments was used to size the market across more than 97% of U.S. zip codes.

The report found that the average U.S. household spends $24,557 per year on the ten most common household bills. It also breaks out the household spending market size for each bill category, the average amount paid per household per month, the percentage of households that pay each bill, and average bill pay costs by state.

Key Findings from the 2023 U.S Bill Pay Market Size & Category Breakout Report include:

• Total Market Size: $3.87 trillion across all categories; of which $3.22 trillion spent per year on the 10 most essential household bills (broken out specifically in the doxo report)
• Average Yearly Cost: $29,459 spent per month on all household bills; $24,557 spent per month on the ten most essential household bills
• Percent of Annual Income: All household bills amount to 42% of consumers’ income per year; the ten most essential household bills amount to 35% of consumers’ income per year

doxo’s proprietary dataset generates the industry’s most accurate statistics

doxo’s bill pay service empowers consumers to pay more than 120,000 providers across 97% of U.S. zip codes. The company’s customer base is over 8 million strong, and represents all U.S. income and regional demographic segments. By incorporating tens of millions of payments, the 2023 U.S. Bill Pay Market Size & Category Breakout Report is a true, direct representation of what Americans actually pay on bills.

This proprietary dataset provides the foundation for doxoINSIGHTS’ bottoms-up market sizing of the 10 most common bills. It also makes category size and average spend transparent at the national, state, and local levels. In contrast to other industry data sources, which often mix expenses incurred by households with employer-paid or withheld expenditures (e.g. health insurance, taxes), doxo’s unique household bill pay data quantifies the actual consumer portion of bill spend.

The report findings include breakouts by service category, household market penetration for each type of service, and household average spend per month by state.

$3.22 trillion total spent across these ten most common household bills:

• $832B Mortgage 
• $619B Rent
• $544B Auto Loan
• $436B Utilities
• $267B Auto Insurance
• $175B Mobile Phone
• $152B Cable & Internet
• $142B Health Insurance (consumer-direct portion)
• $36B Life Insurance
• $19B Alarm & Security

The average U.S. household spends $24,557 per year on the most common bills

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the real median household income in the U.S. is $$70,784. At the same time, doxo estimates that the average American household spends $24,557 per year on the ten most common bills. These figures suggest that more than a third of Americans’ yearly salary is put toward core expenses.

While housing continues to be the highest U.S. household expense by a longshot, the report reveals that the average household is paying more out-of-pocket per month for auto loans, auto insurance, and even mobile phone bills than essential costs like health or life insurance, which are frequently covered by their employer or automatically deducted from paychecks. The average monthly amount of each bill paid in each category is: