Consumption Inequality During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Learn more about the consumption inequality before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We use quarterly data from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Surveys for this study augmented with additional data and imputations to produce our consumption measure. We find that consumption inequality declined from 2019 to 2020 before recovering in 2021 and 2022.

By 2022, consumption inequality was similar to 2019 levels. This trend is consistent with other measures of inequality during this period such as after-tax income inequality and expenditures as defined by outlays.