Restaurant customer spending has changed substantially across household budgets, restaurant formats, and price levels. Average annual spending on food away from home reached $3,945 per consumer unit in 2024, while eating-and-drinking-place spending reached a $1,249.3 billion annual rate in the second quarter of 2025. These figures describe different measures: household expenditure, industry sales, and inflation-adjusted spending are not interchangeable.
Table of contents
- Household spending on food away from home
- Restaurants’ share of food budgets
- Fast-food and full-service spending
- What restaurant purchasers spent
- Restaurant sales and recent totals
- Restaurant prices and inflation
- Customer behavior and budget pressure
Household spending on food away from home
The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures food-away-from-home spending by consumer unit. That category is broader than a single restaurant check: it captures food purchased away from home, including restaurant-related spending. The annual pattern shows rapid growth through 2023 and a nearly flat nominal result in 2024.
| Year | Average annual spending per consumer unit |
|---|---|
| 2021 | $3,030 |
| 2022 | $3,639 |
| 2023 | $3,933 |
| 2024 | $3,945 |
The BLS reported a 20.1% increase from 2021 to 2022, followed by an 8.1% increase from 2022 to 2023. The increase from 2023 to 2024 was 0.3%. In other words, the period moved from a sharp rebound to a much slower year-over-year change. The 2024 average represented 5.0% of all consumer-unit expenditures. BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2024
These are averages across consumer units, not the typical amount spent by every individual customer. They also do not show whether a change came from more restaurant visits, higher prices, different restaurant choices, or a combination of those factors.
Restaurants’ share of food budgets
Food away from home accounted for 43.2% of food spending in 2019. That share fell to 32.5% in 2020, then recovered to 36.6% in 2021, 39.0% in 2022, and 39.4% in 2023. BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
| Year | Food away from home as a share of food spending |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 43.2% |
| 2020 | 32.5% |
| 2021 | 36.6% |
| 2022 | 39.0% |
| 2023 | 39.4% |
The sequence is useful for interpreting restaurant customer spending statistics. The 2020 low point was followed by a recovery, but the 2023 share remained below the 2019 level in this series. A share of food spending is a budget measure, not a measure of restaurant traffic alone. A household can spend more dollars away from home while the category’s percentage of its overall food budget changes differently.
Fast-food and full-service spending
The BLS data separates average spending at fast-food restaurants from average spending at full-service restaurants. Fast-food spending was $1,223.80 per consumer unit in 2019, fell to $1,026.53 in 2020, and rose to $1,108.45 in 2021. It then reached $1,471.42 in 2022 and $1,726.50 in 2023.
Full-service restaurant spending was $1,495.68 per consumer unit in 2019, declined to $948.03 in 2020, and recovered to $1,286.05 in 2021. It reached $1,460.32 in 2022 and $1,484.92 in 2023. These category averages are not directly comparable with the broader food-away-from-home totals because they cover specific restaurant types.
Reported purchase participation also varied by format. The share of consumer units reporting fast-food restaurant purchases was 64.10% in 2019, 51.50% in 2020, and 58.44% in 2023. For full-service restaurant purchases, the corresponding figures were 42.70% in 2019, 27.09% in 2020, and 34.36% in 2023. BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
The spending and participation figures should be read together. A lower share of consumer units reporting purchases can coexist with a higher average among the units that did report spending. The data therefore distinguishes reach across households from dollars spent within the purchasing group.
What restaurant purchasers spent
Among consumer units that purchased from the category, average fast-food purchaser spending was $1,909.20 in 2019, $2,638.37 in 2022, and $2,955.33 in 2023. Average full-service purchaser spending was $3,502.76 in 2019, $4,353.97 in 2022, and $4,325.43 in 2023. BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
| Purchaser category | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fast-food purchasers | $1,909.20 | $2,638.37 | $2,955.33 |
| Full-service purchasers | $3,502.76 | $4,353.97 | $4,325.43 |
These are purchaser averages, so they should not be treated as the average for all consumer units. The distinction matters when evaluating customer spending: participation rates indicate how widely a format was used, while purchaser averages indicate the annual spending level among units that reported that type of purchase.
The full-service purchaser average was higher than the fast-food purchaser average in each listed comparison year. In 2023, the difference between the two reported purchaser averages was $1,370.10, but that is a comparison of two category averages, not a typical difference in the amount paid for one meal.
Restaurant sales and recent totals
Monthly Census advance estimates placed food-services-and-drinking-places sales in February 2024 at 6.3% above February 2023. The March 2024 estimate was 6.5% above March 2023. These are year-over-year changes in industry sales and are not household spending averages. Census, Advance Monthly Sales for February 2024; Census, Advance Monthly Sales for March 2024
For a more recent industry-wide view, the National Restaurant Association reported that spending at eating and drinking places reached $1,223.3 billion at an annual rate in the first quarter of 2025 and $1,249.3 billion at an annual rate in the second quarter. Real Q1 2025 spending was $876.4 billion in chained 2017 dollars, while real Q2 2025 spending was $885.3 billion in chained 2017 dollars. National Restaurant Association, Restaurant Sales Continue to Outpace Pre-Pandemic Trend
The same analysis reported that Q2 2025 eating-and-drinking-place spending was 24.5% above the projected pre-pandemic trendline. The annual-rate figures are not the amount spent in one quarter; they express the quarter’s pace as an annual rate. The chained-dollar figures are inflation-adjusted and should be kept separate from the current-dollar totals.
Restaurant prices and inflation
The CPI-U index for food away from home rose from 284.410 in 2019 to 293.944 in 2020, 307.296 in 2021, 330.822 in 2022, and 354.256 in 2023. The BLS series also reported that food-away-from-home prices increased 7.1% from 2022 to 2023. BLS, Consumer expenditures in 2023
Format-specific indexes moved in the same direction. The CPI-U index for limited-service meals and snacks was 182.053 in 2019 and 232.597 in 2023. The index for full-service meals and snacks was 176.399 in 2019 and 218.353 in 2023. Index values measure price levels relative to their series base; they are not dollar prices for a meal and do not identify the price of a particular restaurant item.
This context helps explain why nominal customer spending can rise without the same increase in meal volume. A household’s restaurant bill may reflect higher menu prices, fees, tips, or changes in what it orders. The supplied BLS measures establish the category’s price movement, but they do not isolate each of those components.
Customer behavior and budget pressure
The National Restaurant Association’s Q3 2026 survey reported that 53% of surveyed consumers ate at a restaurant during the reference week. It reported that 50% ordered takeout or delivery during the same reference week. The survey also found that 40% used more discounts or value promotions than usual in Q3 2026, while 34% regularly spent more than they brought in monthly. National Restaurant Association, Quarterly Consumer Insights Survey: Q3 2026
These results describe surveyed consumer behavior during the Q3 2026 reference week; they are not annual spending averages and should not be combined with the BLS consumer-unit figures as though they measured the same population or period. They do provide current context for interpreting restaurant customer spending: restaurant use and off-premises ordering were both common in the survey, while value-seeking and household budget pressure were also reported.
Taken together, the available measures show several layers of restaurant economics. Household food-away-from-home spending reached $3,945 per consumer unit in 2024. Restaurant-format averages and purchaser averages show how spending differed between fast-food and full-service categories through 2023. Census estimates and industry analysis show sales growth through 2024 and 2025, while the CPI-U indexes document sustained price increases. The Q3 2026 survey adds a behavioral snapshot, with its own reference week and scope.