Indicator 38: Spending Patterns of High School Seniors

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Table 38. Percentage distribution of spending patterns of employed high school seniors on selected activities or expenses, by sex, race, and college plans: Various years, 1991 to 2001
				Percent of 2001 seniors
					Sex		Race
Spending pattern and portion of earnings spent	Percent of 1991 seniors	Percent of 1995 seniors	Percent of 2000 seniors	Total	Male	Female	White non-Hispanic	Black non-Hispanic	Planning to go to a 4-year college	Not Planning to go to a 4-year college
Savings for education
None or only a little	72.4	71.9	73.1	70.6	73.6	68.5	70.7	65.5	68.0	79.8
Some	10.6	11.1	9.8	12.5	11.7	12.5	12.7	13.2	13.5	8.2
About half	7.7	7.7	7.4	9.1	7.0	11.2	9.2	9.1	9.9	6.2
Most	4.5	4.9	5.2	4.7	5.5	4.0	5.0	6.3	5.1	3.4
All or almost all	4.9	4.4	4.5	3.1	2.3	3.8	2.4	6.0	3.5	2.4
Car expenses
None or only a little	57.0	58.8	54.2	54.9	46.8	62.3	51.9	60.6	56.6	47.9
Some	16.1	15.1	16.2	17.8	22.8	13.6	19.3	14.3	17.5	19.7
About half	11.0	10.6	11.2	12.0	13.1	10.8	13.5	8.8	11.2	14.6
Most	9.0	9.0	9.8	7.6	9.3	6.2	8.0	6.9	7.5	8.0
All or almost all	6.9	6.5	8.6	7.6	7.9	7.1	7.2	9.5	7.1	9.7
Long-range savings
None or only a little	71.2	71.1	67.8	66.6	66.1	67.7	66.7	60.9	66.3	68.4
Some	15.3	12.3	15.0	14.7	15.7	13.9	16.0	15.0	15.3	12.3
About half	5.9	8.0	6.3	9.8	9.8	9.6	9.7	9.8	9.5	10.9
Most	4.2	4.2	4.9	4.9	4.1	5.3	4.9	6.5	5.0	4.4
All or almost all	3.4	4.4	6.0	3.9	4.4	3.5	2.7	7.8	3.9	4.0
Personal items
None or only a little	23.1	23.9	24.9	23.8	25.3	22.6	24.5	18.6	22.0	31.1
Some	20.3	18.7	15.8	16.5	18.1	15.1	17.9	12.2	16.9	14.9
About half	16.5	15.5	15.8	18.3	17.9	18.5	19.2	12.2	18.2	19.0
Most	16.5	18.5	19.1	18.9	18.6	19.0	18.7	19.9	19.6	14.6
All or almost all	23.5	23.5	24.4	22.4	20.1	24.7	19.7	37.1	23.2	20.3
Family expenses
None or only a little	80.7	80.8	75.9	75.8	80.6	72.1	83.9	54.1	77.2	70.7
Some	8.4	8.6	11.3	11.0	7.2	14.0	8.6	16.4	10.7	11.8
About half	4.9	4.5	5.2	5.8	5.4	6.2	3.4	13.0	5.5	7.3
Most	2.4	2.4	3.1	3.1	2.8	3.5	2.3	3.5	2.5	4.6
All or almost all	3.6	3.7	4.5	4.3	4.1	4.1	1.8	12.9	4.0	5.5
NOTE: Portions of earnings spent were defined as follows: a little (1-20%), some (21-40%), about half (41-60%), most (61-80%), and almost all (81-99%). The response rate for this survey does not meet NCES statistical standards. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, Monitoring the Future, various years.

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