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Kids’ allowance: How much do Americans dole out?

Americans fork out an estimated $41 billion in kids' allowances annually.

Vicky Ng
Vicky Ng

Updated

Fact checked
A child in the background dropping a coin in a piggy bank

Many parents take pride in guiding their kids toward financial responsibility through an allowance, helping them to talk about and better manage money. Others also use it as a tool to simply get their kids to do chores around the house.

But whatever your motivation, how much is a fair allowance? And just how much do the Joneses give their kids?

We at finder.com commissioned a survey of 2,000 American adults and learned that parents hand out an estimated $790 million to their kids for allowance every week. That calculates to more than $41 billion a year!

Of the estimated 35.54% of adults we surveyed who have children ages 21 or younger, 53.41% of them — or 46.6 million parents — give an allowance to their kids. Of these parents, the majority (86.17%) require their children to complete a task or chore for that allowance.

These parents hand out an average $17 in allowance to their kids each week. When compared with older kids, younger kids are getting ripped off: Kids up to age 10 receive an average $13 weekly, and those ages 11 to 21 get an average $17 weekly.

The average age of our respondents’ eldest children is 14, and these parents report giving their eldest $19.78 a week. Compare that to second children who average 12 years old and receive $17.47 every week.

It gets worse for siblings. Only-child parents give their kids an average $19 a week, while kids with siblings are likely to get $16 weekly.

Teaching children about sound money management early on can be beneficial whether or not you support allowances for kids.

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Allan Givens
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203-818-2928
allan.givens@finder.com
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Nicole Gallina
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