Insights » 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report

2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report

The 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report found that the average amount consumers spend per year on household bills grew 4% year over year. The Bill Pay Economy™ of 2024 amounts to $4.46 trillion, of which $3.35 trillion are the ten most essential household bills. The report found that the average U.S. household spends $25,513 per year, or 34% of income on the ten most essential household bills, and also breaks out the household spending market size for each of these bill categories, percentage of households that pay each bill, and average monthly and annual bill pay costs by state.

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 10 million strong, and represents all U.S. income and regional demographic segments. By incorporating tens of millions of payments, the 2024 U.S. Bill Pay 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.

Key Findings from the 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report include:

• Total Market Size: $3.35 trillion spent per year on the ten most essential household bills 
• Average Yearly Cost: $25,513 spent per year on the ten most essential household bills
• Percent of Annual Income: 34% of consumers’ income per year

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

$3.35 trillion total spent across these ten most common household bills:

• $885B Mortgage 
• $656B Rent
• $571B Auto Loan
• $451B Utilities
• $271B Auto Insurance
• $180B Mobile Phone
• $156B Cable & Internet
• $133B Health Insurance (consumer-direct portion)
• $34B Life Insurance
• $17B Alarm & Security

The average U.S. household spends $25,513 per year on the most common bills

According to The U.S. Census Bureau, the real median household income in the U.S. is $74,755. This number, combined with doxo’s estimate that the average U.S. household spends $25,513 per year on the ten most essential bills, suggests that more than a third of Americans’ yearly salary is put toward core expenses – a sizable portion of income by any measure.

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:

 Note that the market size of each category, and the total spend per household per year, factor in not only in the average amount of each bill payment, but also the actual percentage of households paying each category. For example, consumers that pay rent are not typically also paying a mortgage. See full report for these category details.