What the average American really owns
Daniel Coughlin
23 June 2021
Jaw-dropping stats that show how the US is drowning in stuff
Americans sure love accumulating possessions and, according to professional organizer Regina Lark, the typical home in the country contains a bewildering 300,000 items. A third of the US population has experienced “extreme anxiety” over clutter and nearly two-thirds (63%) admit they have too many belongings, a survey by selling app Mercari. As more and more people embrace the minimalist movement, Marie Kondo-style, for the sake of the planet as well as their sanity, click or scroll through as we reveal some of the multitude of things the average American owns.
Home
Forget the tiny house craze. The average home in the US has almost tripled in size since 1950, even as the typical number of occupants has declined from 3.37 to 2.53, says the US Census Bureau. A staggering 80% of the things Americans own are never used, the National Association of Professional Organizers found. Despite this, people just keep on consuming, and 1 in 10 have so much stuff they have to rent an off-site storage unit to stash it away.
Cars
On average there are 1.88 cars per household in the US, according to the Department of Transportation, but over a third (35%) have three or more at their disposal. Globally, only the European microstates of Monaco and San Marino have more automobiles per capita. Over their lifetime the typical American will go through 9.4 cars and, as US drivers increasingly opt for bigger SUVs, the typical price per vehicle recently topped $40,000 for the first time, says car research site Edmunds.
Guns
America is awash with civilian firearms, more than an estimated 393 million in fact. This equates to 120.5 per 100 residents or a little over 1.2 per person, according to the latest Small Arms Survey, making the US the world's number one civilian gun-owning nation – war-torn Yemen is second with 52.8 per 100. In terms of registered guns, as most are actually unregistered, the Pew Research Center says that Texas leads the way in terms of total numbers at 588,696, while Wyoming has the most per capita at 2.29 per 100 people. Rhode Island and New York have the fewest at just 0.3 per 100.
TV sets
TV set ownership in America is declining as more and more people watch shows on their computers or mobile devices. In 2015, the most recent year data is available, the Energy Information Administration found that the average number per household was 2.3, down from 2.6 in 2009. Be that as it may, TV device adoption has reached record highs: 80% of TV-owning households now have at least one internet-connected TV device, up from 24% in 2010, with the total now standing at 400 million, according to Leichtman Research Group.
Connected devices
When it comes to connected devices such as laptops, smartphones, smart TVs, wireless headphones, and so on, the typical US household now has 25, according to a recent Deloitte survey. With the pandemic meaning people have spent more time at home, this figure has jumped from just 11 in 2019. The same report also found that a third of Americans surveyed feel overwhelmed by the number of devices and subscriptions they have.
Smartphones
Looking at the latest data from the Pew Research Center, 85% of Americans now own at least one smartphone, up from just 35% in 2011, while a third of households have at least three. Interestingly, 15% of US adults are smartphone-only internet users and have no broadband connection at home, with the number rising to 28% among Gen Z and younger Millennial adults.
Computers
A survey by AudienceProject conducted last year found that the average American now has access to two computers in their household, be it a desktop or laptop device. This compares to a Pew Research Center study from 2017, which came up with a median figure of just one per US household.
Smart speakers
Among the connected devices that are steadily gaining in popularity in American households are smart speakers. Last year a poll from NPR and Edison Research revealed that a quarter of people now own a connected speaker, with the total number in the country adding up to 157 million, up from 119 million in 2019.
Apple products
Apple products are the go-to for many Americans. The 2017 CNBC All-America Economic Survey discovered that the typical household in the country owns 2.6 Apple products, be they an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or any other one of the tech giant's coveted offerings. The number rises to 4.7 in the wealthiest households, and even the poorest average one.
Unused tech products
The average person in the US owns $199-worth of unused tech according to Decluttr: think old CDs, spent cellphones, obsolete VCRs, and so on. And many have no idea they could be worth anything, so these outdated products tend to be squirreled away in a basement or storage unit, taking up valuable space.
Home appliances
The typical American home is jam-packed with home appliances. Microwave ovens are actually number one, Statista found, with 92% of households having one despite them not being considered essential, unlike refrigerators, which come next at 90%. They are followed by vacuum cleaners, cookers, toasters, washing machines, small kitchen appliances such as food processors and juicers, coffee machines, and dishwashers.
Refrigerators
Although an extra refrigerator is seen as a luxury by many, around 35 million or 30% of American households own two, according to the Energy Information Administration, up from 14% in 1978, while six million have more than two. Rural homes are most likely to have multiple refrigerators – 40% of them own two or more, compared to just over a quarter (27%) of urban homes.
Vacuum cleaners
Given US homes have become increasingly spacious and loaded with dust-attracting items, many Americans are finding that a sole vacuum cleaner just doesn't cut it. In fact, 43% of people own two or three, industry data shows, and more and more households are snapping up robotic devices. At the last count in 2018, 14.2 million owned an automated vacuum cleaner, an increase of 1.2 million from the year before.
Breadmakers and dishwashers
A breadmaker is among the small kitchen gizmos many Americans own, but according to Consumer Reports it's the least-used appliance in the US. Dishwashers are also used infrequently by many Americans, despite consuming less water and energy than washing dishes by hand. As many as one in five people who own a dishwasher use it less than once a week.
Plastic bags
The typical US household has a massive collection of single-use plastic bags judging by the latest research. A whopping 4.2 million tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were produced in 2018, the most recent year with data available, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Plastic food containers
Likewise, America is addicted to plastic food containers, despite their environmental impact. Last year, 199.5 million people in the US used disposable food containers, plastic or otherwise, according to Statista.
AC units
The latest data from the International Energy Agency shows that 90% of households in the US have air conditioning – only Japan has a higher penetration rate – and this number is likely to grow as climate change pushes up temperatures. Incredibly, America uses more electricity for cooling than the entire continent of Africa, which is home to 1.4 billion people, uses for everything.
Closets
The typical home in the US has four closets, according to a OnePoll survey, and the closet of an average American woman contains 103 items. With so much clothing to choose from, it's no wonder 44% of women in the country say they're unable to find an item in their closet at least once a month.
Clothing
As a matter of fact, shoppers in the US buy around five times more clothing now than they did back in 1980. Rent the Runway conducted a survey in 2018 which found that the typical American purchases 68 garments a year, and many of these items end up in landfill. The average person in the country throws away 65 pounds of apparel a year.
Outfits
Among the clothing that isn't thrown away, a large proportion is never even worn. For example, the typical American woman has $550-worth of apparel that has never seen the light of day, a survey by VoucherCloud found. And whereas in 1930 the average American woman had just nine outfits, today she has 30, one for every day of the month more or less.
Jeans
As American as apple pie, blue jeans are enduringly popular in the US. The average person in the country owns seven pairs, one for every day of the week. That said, most people wear just four pairs and denim expert Max Wong says you only really need three: a dressier pair, one for the weekend, and a worn-out pair for doing jobs around the house.
Handbags
As the old adage goes, you can never have too many handbags, and plenty of American women certainly swear by this saying. Surveys have found that the average comes in at 11 at any given time, with 10% of women owning 20 or more. Needless to say, many of them are unused and merely take up space in closets and drawers.
Hats
Gone are the days when hat-wearing was de rigueur, but Americans still own plenty of headwear. Apparently, the average man in the country owns 11 hats, most of which presumably would be casual baseball caps and beanies, rather than formal trilbies, fedoras, bowlers, and the like.
Shoes
Many American women have a shoe addiction that would put Carrie Bradshaw and Imelda Marcos to shame. The average woman in the nation owns around 30 pairs, according to Alliance Data, and many are prepared to spend big bucks on their footwear, with 32% more than willing to spend well in excess of $100 per pair.
Underwear
Underwear experts suggest that you only really need a maximum of 14 pairs of whether you're male or female, yet most people in the US own far more than this figure. For American women the total averages out at 21 pairs, while for the nation's men the typical number owned is 20.
Toys
The average American kid is spoiled rotten based on the stats on toy ownership. The typical 10-year-old has 238 toys to choose from, but only plays with 12 of them on any given day. According to a UCLA study, 3.1% of the world's children live in America, yet they own 40% of the world's toys.
Barbie dolls
Writing in her book on the iconic American fashion doll, author Sara Prendergast states that the average American girl between the ages of three and 11 owns 10 Barbies. Last year the Barbie brand generated sales of $1.4 billion for Mattel, with around half of those purchases coming from North America.
Makeup
The average American woman owns 40 items of makeup says a study carried out by Stowaway Cosmetics and Poshly, but only uses around five products a day. Online beauty retailer SkinStore estimates that the typical female in the country will spend $300,000 in her lifetime on cosmetics, which is more than the average cost of a home.
Perfume
The average woman in America owns four bottles of perfume, but only actually uses two. Based on data collated by the US Census data and Simmons National Consumer Survey, last year 136.8 million Americans bought fragrances, with 1.7 million of them spending more than $500 to make themselves smell nice.
Credit cards
Living in the world's foremost consumerist society calls for plenty of credit, so it's no wonder the average American adult has around four credit cards, according to the latest data from referencing agency Experian, though the number has dropped slightly as a result of the pandemic. In terms of states, residents of New Jersey pack the most plastic, while Alaskans have the fewest credit cards.
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