Consumer spending by age group in 2013

Housing was the largest spending category among all households in 2013. Consumers ages 25 to 34 had the highest share of spending on housing (35.8 percent). Consumers ages 45 to 54 had the lowest share (31.4 percent).

In 2013, consumers under age 25 had the highest share of overall spending on food away from home, at 6.9 percent. This age group also had the highest shares of total spending on education (6.8 percent), apparel and services (5.0 percent), and alcoholic beverages (1.2 percent).

Consumers age 65 and older spent a higher share on healthcare, 12.2 percent of total spending, than other age groups. Consumers ages 55 to 64 had the next-highest healthcare share (7.8 percent), followed by those ages 45 to 54 (6.3 percent).

More from the BLS.

One hundred years of price change: the Consumer Price Index and the American inflation experience

The year 2013 marked, in a sense, the 100th anniversary of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), because 1913 is the first year for which official CPI data became available. For 100 years, the index has been a major measure of consumer inflation in the U.S. economy, through war and peace, booms and recessions. Over those 100 years, the general public and policymakers have focused almost constantly on inflation; they have feared it, bemoaned it, sought it, and even tried to whip it. Different subperiods saw different trends in price movement, so each generation of Americans had a different experience of price change from the ones before and after it. This article looks at major trends in price change from one subperiod to the next and at how Americans and their leaders regarded those trends and reacted to them.

More from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Order Your Free 2013 Consumer Action Handbook

The Consumer Action Handbook is your go-to guide for practical information to help you plan a purchase, know your consumer rights, and file a consumer complaint. The Handbook features new content in areas that matter to you, such as banking, housing, and protecting your privacy, as well as tips to alert you of the latest frauds and scams.

Use the updated Consumer Assistance Directory to contact corporate consumer affairs departments, national consumer organizations, and local, state, and federal government offices. The Handbook also includes a sample complaint letter for when you need to file a complaint about a product you purchased.

Order your free copies of the Handbook or the Spanish language version, Guía del Consumidor.

Prefer an electronic version? You can download the PDF or try the new interactive version, with links to related videos and downloadable resources

Promotion of Prescription Drugs to Consumers and Providers, 2001–2010

Pharmaceutical firms heavily promote their products and may have changed marketing strategies in response to reductions in new product approvals, restrictions on some forms of promotion, and the expanding role of biologic therapies.

Total promotion peaked in 2004 at US$36.1 billion (13.4% of sales). By 2010 it had declined to $27.7B (9.0% of sales). Between 2006 and 2010, similar declines were seen for promotion to providers and direct-to-consumer advertising (both by 25%). DTCA’s share of total promotion increased from 12% in 2002 to 18% in 2006, but then declined to 16% and remains highly concentrated. Number of products promoted to providers peaked in 2004 at over 3000, and then declined 20% by 2010. In contrast to top-selling small molecule therapies having an average of $370 million (8.8% of sales) spent on promotion, top biologics were promoted less, with only $33 million (1.4% of sales) spent per product. Little change occurred in the composition of promotion between primary care physicians and specialists from 2001–2010.
Conclusions

These findings suggest that pharmaceutical companies have reduced promotion following changes in the pharmaceutical pipeline and patent expiry for several blockbuster drugs. Promotional strategies for biologic drugs differ substantially from small molecule therapies.

More from the Public Library of Science

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 2012 Annual Report

Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
From the publication web page:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is pleased to submit to Congress its first annual report summarizing its activities to administer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, during the past year. These activities represent the Bureau’s inaugural effort to curtail deceptive, unfair, and abusive debt collection practices in the marketplace prohibited by the FDCPA.

Identity Theft Reported by Households, 2005-2010

An estimated 8.6 million households had at least one person age 12 or older who experienced identity theft victimization in 2010, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. This was an increase from the 6.4 million households victimized in 2005.

Identity theft is the unauthorized use or attempted use of an existing credit card or another type of existing account, the unauthorized use of personal information to open a new account or for another fraudulent purpose, or a combination of these.

The unauthorized use of an existing credit card accounted for much of the increase in household identity theft from 2005 to 2010. The number of households experiencing the misuse of an existing credit card rose from about 3.6 million in 2005 to 5.5 million in 2010.

Link to full report.

View the publication web page for additional formats and information