Consumer Spending: Does Age Play a Role?

JP Morgan Chase & Co. Institute released a December 2015 report, Profiles of Local Consumer Commerce, Insights from 12 Billion Transactions in 15 U.S. Metro Areas. The report reviews “how the growth of local consumer commerce is shaped by the age and income of the consumer, the products sold by the business and its size, and the residence of the consumer relative to the business.”  Age is addressed in Finding One.  The executive summary explains Finding One:           “[m]iddle- and high-income consumers, and consumers ages 65 and older, were responsible for most of the slowdown in growth, while low-income consumers and those under 35 maintained relatively stable spending growth.”

The report expands on the findings, explaining with Finding One 

We first explore the simultaneous impact of consumer age and income on local consumer commercial spending. Spending is largely driven by income, which for many consumers is strongly related to their age. We define five age and income segments that best explain this pattern (see Data and Methodology for details of this segmentation). Based on these segments, our analyses show that middle-income and high-income consumers ages 35 to 64, and consumers 65 and older, were responsible for most of the slowdown in growth, while low-income consumers 35 to 64 and those under 35 maintained relatively stable spending growth.

Pages 10 – 11 of the report discuss Finding One, along with graphs and charts that accompany the discussion. This 32 page report is heavily data driven and provides good visual aids to accompany each finding.