A year of rent now takes 13 weeks of the typical household's pay
Rent took a bigger share of pay in 2024 and 2025 than in any other year since 1980.
13.0 of 52 weeks
of take-home pay went to a year of rent. That is a quarter of the year.
- 13.0 weeks for a year of rent
- 12.5 more for groceries, gas, a car and health care
- 26.5 weeks left for everything else
Of the 52 weeks in 2025, a year of rent took 13.0 weeks of take-home pay. The other four bills took 12.5 more. That left 26.5 weeks.
Each square is one week of pay after federal taxes.
We compare a year of the typical American rent with what the typical household takes home after federal taxes. Rent is the largest of the five basic bills in the Citizen Economic Index. The other four are groceries, gas, a car and health care. We price all five in the same amounts every year, and we call that the same basic life. In 2025, the five bills took 25.5 weeks of take-home pay. In 2000 they took 23.2 weeks. Rent is about half of the total.
Who is the typical household?
Line up every American household by income, from lowest to highest. That line holds people who live alone, couples, and families with kids. The typical household is the one in the middle of the line.
- Pay: the middle income of all households. It was $87,460 before taxes in 2025.
- Taxes: we figure them for a married couple who both work and have no kids.
- Health care: the worker's share of a family health plan, plus costs insurance does not cover.
- Kids: child care and the other costs of raising kids are not in this number.
Next, we are building the same number for one person who lives alone and for a married couple raising two kids.
How to read the number
The Citizen Economic Index counts the a typical American household needs for . That life is five bills: rent, groceries, gas, a car and health care. We price them in the same amounts in every year from 1980 to 2025. We count in weeks of pay, not dollars. That way we never have to adjust for inflation. The price and the pay always come from the same year.
The arithmetic for 2025
- The typical household
- is the one in the exact middle of the income ladder: half of American households earn more and half earn less. Economists call this the median household. Before taxes it earned $87,460 in 2025.
- Take-home pay
- is what that household keeps after two federal taxes. One is income tax. The other is the Social Security and Medicare tax taken out of every paycheck, called the payroll tax. We figure the tax for a married couple who both work and have no children. State and local taxes are not taken out.
- The typical rent
- is the median gross rent reported by the Census Bureau. Line up every rented home in the country from cheapest to most expensive and take the one in the middle. "Gross" means the rent plus utilities such as electricity, gas and water when the renter pays them separately.
In 1970, a year of the typical American rent took 9.4 weeks of the typical household's take-home pay. By 1980 it took 10.5 weeks.
Each square is one week of take-home pay, and each row is 13 weeks, a quarter of the year. 10.5 weeks is 20 percent of the year.
For the next 20 years it stayed between 10.8 and 11.8 weeks. In 2000 a year of rent took 10.9 weeks, close to where it started.
Dashed line: estimated years. The Census measured rent only once a decade back then.
Then rent began to outrun pay. By 2014 a year of rent took 12.8 weeks of take-home pay.
That is 1.9 weeks more than in 2000.
It fell to 11.7 weeks in 2019, then rose again. A year of rent took 13.1 weeks in 2024 and 13.0 weeks in 2025, the two highest of the 46 years we measured.
13.0 weeks is 25 percent of the year, about one week of pay in every four.
Rent is the biggest of the five bills in the same basic life. Add groceries, gas, a car and health care, and the five together took 25.5 weeks of take-home pay in 2025. That total is the Citizen Economic Index. It was 23.2 weeks in 2000 and 28.2 in 1980.
Gas, groceries and a car together take 7.0 fewer weeks than in 1980.
Rent took more of a paycheck in 2024 and 2025 than in any other year since 1980
In 2025, a year of the typical rent took 13.0 weeks of the typical household's take-home pay, and in 2024 it took 13.1. Those are the two highest of the 46 years we measured. In 1980 a year of rent took 10.5 weeks, and in 2000 it took 10.9.
The typical rent, with utilities, went from $243 a month in 1980 to $1,557 in 2025. That is about 6.4 times as much. Take-home pay grew too, but only about 5.2 times. When a bill's price grows faster than pay, it takes more weeks of work to cover it, and that is what happened to rent.
We lead with rent for three reasons. It added more weeks of pay than any of the other four bills, +2.5 weeks since 1980 and +2.1 since 2000. Its numbers come straight from the Census Bureau, with no modeling on our part in most years. And it is the largest of the five bills: 51 cents of every dollar the same basic life cost in 2025.
We price the same basic life in every year
We price a fixed list of what a middle-income household bought in 2019. We use the prices people actually paid in each year from 1980 to 2025. Because the list never changes, the number moves only when prices or pay move.
We call this fixed list ; economists would call it a fixed basket. We hold it fixed for one reason. When money is tight, families buy less, so their spending falls. A measure of what households spend would then show a lower number. With a fixed list, buying less cannot lower the number.
| The bill | What stays the same every year | Where each year's price comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | Twelve months of the typical rent, with utilities | The Census Bureau's median gross rent for that year |
| Groceries | 18 everyday grocery items, in the amounts bought in 2019 | Average store prices collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| Gas | Enough gasoline to drive the same number of miles | The average pump price (Energy Information Administration), divided by how far that year's cars went on a gallon |
| A car | One new car every 10 years, so a tenth of a new car's price each year | The average price paid for a new car (Bureau of Economic Analysis) |
| Health care | What a middle-income household paid for its own health care in 2019. That is its share of the insurance bill, plus copays and other costs its plan did not cover. | That 2019 amount moves each year with two things. One is the worker's share of a family health plan at work, from a survey by KFF, a health research group. The other is health spending per person that insurance did not cover, from federal health spending accounts. The employer's share is never counted. |
In 1980, rent was 37 cents of every dollar the five bills cost. Pay is the typical household's income before tax, as the Census Bureau measures it, minus federal income tax and payroll tax. In 2025 that was $87,460 before tax and $74,531 after.
The same basic life takes more weeks of pay than it did in 2000
In 2025 it took 25.5 weeks of take-home pay, against 23.2 in 2000. From 1980 to 2025, the lowest year was 1999, at 22.9 weeks. The highest year was 1981, at 28.9 weeks.
In both of those years rent is an . The Census did not measure rent in either year. So read the very top and bottom of the line with some care. From 2000 the number rose to 28.6 weeks in 2014, its highest since the early 1980s.
The gray band in the chart below shows how much the number depends on our pricing choices. We rebuilt the number nine more times. Each time we changed one choice, such as pricing rent as the same apartment every year. The band runs from the lowest result to the highest. Statisticians call this a sensitivity band.
Against 1980, the answer changes with those choices. At our main estimate, the same basic life took 25.5 weeks of pay in 2025. In 1980 it took 28.2 weeks. Each of the other pricing choices in the gray band also puts 2025 below 1980. The gap runs from 0.9 to 4.8 weeks. Making three of those choices at once puts 2025 1.1 weeks above 1980. The three choices are listed below.
- Gas priced as the same number of gallons instead of the same miles.
- Groceries moved by the government's index of grocery prices.
- Pay without the Census Bureau's 2013 change to its income survey.
Figure 1
The same basic life takes more of a year's pay than in 2000, even when we change one pricing choice at a time
Weeks of take-home pay needed each year for rent, groceries, gas, a car and health care, with the amounts held fixed. Dashed stretches are years when rent is estimated.
The vertical scale does not start at zero.
Table of values
| Year | The same basic life |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 28.2 |
| 1981 | 28.9 (est.) |
| 1982 | 28.0 (est.) |
| 1983 | 27.5 (est.) |
| 1984 | 26.6 (est.) |
| 1985 | 26.4 (est.) |
| 1986 | 25.5 (est.) |
| 1987 | 25.1 (est.) |
| 1988 | 25.0 (est.) |
| 1989 | 24.8 (est.) |
| 1990 | 25.5 |
| 1991 | 25.7 (est.) |
| 1992 | 25.5 (est.) |
| 1993 | 25.3 (est.) |
| 1994 | 24.9 (est.) |
| 1995 | 24.0 (est.) |
| 1996 | 24.0 (est.) |
| 1997 | 23.7 (est.) |
| 1998 | 23.0 (est.) |
| 1999 | 22.9 (est.) |
| 2000 | 23.2 |
| 2001 | 23.8 |
| 2002 | 24.1 |
| 2003 | 24.6 |
| 2004 | 25.0 |
| 2005 | 25.2 |
| 2006 | 25.5 |
| 2007 | 25.7 |
| 2008 | 26.9 |
| 2009 | 25.9 |
| 2010 | 27.4 |
| 2011 | 28.3 |
| 2012 | 28.3 |
| 2013 | 28.0 |
| 2014 | 28.6 |
| 2015 | 26.9 |
| 2016 | 25.9 |
| 2017 | 25.8 |
| 2018 | 25.3 |
| 2019 | 24.0 |
| 2020 | 23.0 (est.) |
| 2021 | 24.2 |
| 2022 | 26.7 |
| 2023 | 26.0 |
| 2024 | 25.9 |
| 2025 | 25.5 |
Note: The shading shows the lowest and highest result when one pricing choice is changed at a time. Source: Citizen Economic Index calculations. Data from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Energy Information Administration. Also the Federal Highway Administration, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and KFF. Also the NBER TAXSIM tax calculator, the Social Security Administration and the IRS. What the shaded range includes
Since 1980, rent and health care prices rose faster than pay, while grocery, gas and car prices rose more slowly
The total hides bills moving in opposite directions. Since 1980, rent added 2.5 weeks of pay and health care added 1.8, while groceries, gas and the car together took 7.0 weeks off.
From 1980 to 2025, take-home pay grew about 5.2 times. A bill whose price grew faster than that now takes more weeks of work. A bill whose price grew slower takes fewer. Health care grew about 9.6 times and rent about 6.4 times, both faster than pay. A new car grew about 4.4 times. Groceries grew about 3.1 times. Gas for the same miles grew about 1.7 times. All three grew slower than pay. Gas looks cheap here partly because cars now go much farther on a gallon. So the same miles take less gas.
Figure 2
Since 1980, rent and health care have taken more weeks of pay, while groceries, gas and cars have taken fewer
Weeks of take-home pay each bill took in each year, stacked so the top edge is all five bills together.
Table of values
| Year | Groceries | Gas | A car | Health care | Rent | All five |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 7.6 | 5.3 | 2.7 | 2.1 | 10.5 | 28.2 |
| 1981 | 7.6 | 5.3 | 3.0 | 2.2 | 10.8 | 28.9 |
| 1982 | 7.2 | 4.5 | 3.1 | 2.2 | 11.0 | 28.0 |
| 1983 | 6.8 | 4.1 | 3.2 | 2.3 | 11.1 | 27.5 |
| 1984 | 6.5 | 3.6 | 3.2 | 2.3 | 11.0 | 26.6 |
| 1985 | 6.2 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 2.4 | 11.2 | 26.4 |
| 1986 | 6.0 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 11.3 | 25.5 |
| 1987 | 5.7 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 11.3 | 25.1 |
| 1988 | 5.7 | 2.2 | 3.2 | 2.6 | 11.3 | 25.0 |
| 1989 | 5.8 | 2.2 | 3.1 | 2.5 | 11.2 | 24.8 |
| 1990 | 6.0 | 2.3 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 11.3 | 25.5 |
| 1991 | 6.0 | 2.2 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 11.7 | 25.7 |
| 1992 | 5.7 | 2.1 | 3.4 | 2.6 | 11.7 | 25.5 |
| 1993 | 5.5 | 2.0 | 3.4 | 2.6 | 11.8 | 25.3 |
| 1994 | 5.3 | 2.0 | 3.5 | 2.4 | 11.7 | 24.9 |
| 1995 | 5.1 | 1.9 | 3.3 | 2.3 | 11.4 | 24.0 |
| 1996 | 5.2 | 2.0 | 3.3 | 2.3 | 11.3 | 24.0 |
| 1997 | 5.0 | 1.9 | 3.3 | 2.4 | 11.1 | 23.7 |
| 1998 | 4.8 | 1.5 | 3.3 | 2.4 | 11.0 | 23.0 |
| 1999 | 4.7 | 1.6 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 10.8 | 22.9 |
| 2000 | 4.6 | 2.0 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 10.9 | 23.2 |
| 2001 | 4.7 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 2.6 | 11.4 | 23.8 |
| 2002 | 4.7 | 1.7 | 3.2 | 3.0 | 11.5 | 24.1 |
| 2003 | 4.7 | 2.0 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 11.6 | 24.6 |
| 2004 | 4.7 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 3.3 | 11.6 | 25.0 |
| 2005 | 4.5 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 3.3 | 11.6 | 25.2 |
| 2006 | 4.5 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 11.7 | 25.5 |
| 2007 | 4.7 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 3.5 | 11.7 | 25.7 |
| 2008 | 5.1 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 3.6 | 12.1 | 26.9 |
| 2009 | 4.9 | 2.3 | 2.8 | 3.6 | 12.2 | 25.9 |
| 2010 | 5.0 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 12.5 | 27.4 |
| 2011 | 5.3 | 3.5 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 12.5 | 28.3 |
| 2012 | 5.2 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 4.1 | 12.5 | 28.3 |
| 2013 | 5.1 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 4.2 | 12.5 | 28.0 |
| 2014 | 5.3 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 4.4 | 12.8 | 28.6 |
| 2015 | 5.2 | 2.1 | 2.7 | 4.3 | 12.5 | 26.9 |
| 2016 | 4.8 | 1.8 | 2.7 | 4.4 | 12.3 | 25.9 |
| 2017 | 4.6 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 4.5 | 12.3 | 25.8 |
| 2018 | 4.3 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 4.2 | 12.2 | 25.3 |
| 2019 | 3.9 | 1.8 | 2.3 | 4.2 | 11.7 | 24.0 |
| 2020 | 3.9 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 3.7 | 11.6 | 23.0 |
| 2021 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 3.9 | 11.8 | 24.2 |
| 2022 | 4.6 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 4.1 | 12.8 | 26.7 |
| 2023 | 4.4 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 4.0 | 12.8 | 26.0 |
| 2024 | 4.5 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 3.9 | 13.1 | 25.9 |
| 2025 | 4.6 | 1.7 | 2.3 | 3.8 | 13.0 | 25.5 |
Each value is rounded on its own, so in some years the five bills add to a tenth of a week more or less than the total.
Source: Citizen Economic Index calculations from the sources listed under Figure 1.
Figure 3
Rent added more weeks of pay than any other bill since 2000. Since 1980, the weeks saved on gas and groceries more than made up for rent and health care.
Weeks of take-home pay each bill added (right of the line) or removed (left of the line) between the two years.
- Rent +2.5 +2.1
- Health care +1.8 +1.3
- Groceries −3.0 0.0
- Gas −3.6 −0.3
- A car −0.4 −0.9
- All five −2.7 weeks +2.3 weeks
Note: Each bar is rounded on its own, so the five bars can differ from the total by a tenth of a week. Source: Citizen Economic Index calculations from the sources listed under Figure 1.
Relief checks lowered the 2020 number
The chart shows a low number for 2020. The reason is the federal relief checks. The same basic life itself cost $26,992 in 2019, $27,210 in 2020, $29,315 in 2021 and $32,555 in 2022, more every year.
In 2020 and 2021 the federal government sent most households (officially called economic impact payments). We count those checks as take-home pay, because households could spend them on rent and groceries like any other income. They made each week of pay larger, so the same bills took fewer weeks. With the checks, 2020 took 23.0 weeks of pay; without them it would have taken 24.4. In 2021 the figures are 24.2 with the checks and 25.3 without. In 2022 there were no checks, and the same basic life took 26.7 weeks. That is more than 2021, with or without the checks.
Figure 4
Without the relief checks, 2020 and 2021 would have taken more weeks of pay than 2019
Weeks of take-home pay for the same basic life, 2018 to 2023. One line counts the federal relief checks a married couple received in 2020 and 2021. The other leaves them out.
The vertical scale starts at 22 weeks, not zero.
Table of values
| Year | Without the checks | As paid, with the checks |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 25.3 | 25.3 |
| 2019 | 24.0 | 24.0 |
| 2020 | 24.4 | 23.0 |
| 2021 | 25.3 | 24.2 |
| 2022 | 26.7 | 26.7 |
| 2023 | 26.0 | 26.0 |
Source: Citizen Economic Index calculations; check amounts from the laws that created them.
Priced as the same apartment, rent peaked in 2014
A 1980 apartment is not the same as a 2025 apartment, and that changes how we describe rent. The typical rent each year reflects whatever homes people happen to rent that year, and the mix of homes changes over time. Now price the same apartment in every year instead. A year of rent then took 12.1 weeks of pay in 2025. Its peak was 12.6 weeks, in 2014.
To price the same apartment, we start from the 2019 typical rent. We move it backward and forward in time with the government's rent price index. That index is part of the , the monthly measure of how prices change. It follows the same rented homes from year to year.
On that measure, a year of rent still takes more of the typical household's pay than in 1980, when it took 11.6 weeks. It takes more than in 2000, when it took 11.0 weeks. The two measures peak in different years. Rent as people paid it took its biggest share of pay in 2024 and 2025. The same apartment peaked in 2014. So we do not say the same home has never cost more. The methods page explains how the two measures differ.
Figure 5
Since 2000, rent takes more weeks of pay whether you count the rent people paid or the same apartment
Weeks of take-home pay for a year of rent. The dashed line takes the 2019 typical rent and moves it back and forward with the CPI rent index. That index follows the same homes over time.
The vertical scale starts at 10 weeks, not zero.
Table of values
| Year | The same apartment | Rent paid |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 11.6 | 10.5 |
| 1981 | 11.9 | 10.8 (est.) |
| 1982 | 11.9 | 11.0 (est.) |
| 1983 | 12.0 | 11.1 (est.) |
| 1984 | 11.7 | 11.0 (est.) |
| 1985 | 11.9 | 11.2 (est.) |
| 1986 | 12.0 | 11.3 (est.) |
| 1987 | 11.8 | 11.3 (est.) |
| 1988 | 11.8 | 11.3 (est.) |
| 1989 | 11.5 | 11.2 (est.) |
| 1990 | 11.6 | 11.3 |
| 1991 | 11.9 | 11.7 (est.) |
| 1992 | 12.0 | 11.7 (est.) |
| 1993 | 12.1 | 11.8 (est.) |
| 1994 | 12.0 | 11.7 (est.) |
| 1995 | 11.6 | 11.4 (est.) |
| 1996 | 11.5 | 11.3 (est.) |
| 1997 | 11.3 | 11.1 (est.) |
| 1998 | 11.1 | 11.0 (est.) |
| 1999 | 11.0 | 10.8 (est.) |
| 2000 | 11.0 | 10.9 |
| 2001 | 11.3 | 11.4 |
| 2002 | 11.6 | 11.5 |
| 2003 | 11.6 | 11.6 |
| 2004 | 11.7 | 11.6 |
| 2005 | 11.5 | 11.6 |
| 2006 | 11.5 | 11.7 |
| 2007 | 11.5 | 11.7 |
| 2008 | 11.9 | 12.1 |
| 2009 | 12.0 | 12.2 |
| 2010 | 12.1 | 12.5 |
| 2011 | 12.1 | 12.5 |
| 2012 | 12.2 | 12.5 |
| 2013 | 12.2 | 12.5 |
| 2014 | 12.6 | 12.8 |
| 2015 | 12.4 | 12.5 |
| 2016 | 12.3 | 12.3 |
| 2017 | 12.4 | 12.3 |
| 2018 | 12.2 | 12.2 |
| 2019 | 11.7 | 11.7 |
| 2020 | 11.5 | 11.6 (est.) |
| 2021 | 11.4 | 11.8 |
| 2022 | 12.1 | 12.8 |
| 2023 | 12.1 | 12.8 |
| 2024 | 12.3 | 13.1 |
| 2025 | 12.1 | 13.0 |
Source: Citizen Economic Index calculations from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What the number leaves out
The Citizen Economic Index is built to be simple and repeatable, and that means some real costs are outside it.
- It covers about half the budget. The five bills take 49 cents of each take-home dollar in 2025. Child care, car insurance and repairs, phone service and clothes are not in it.
- State and local taxes are not subtracted. Take-home pay here removes only federal income tax and payroll tax. Taking out state and local taxes as well would add a little under a week of pay to the same basic life in every year.
- Some rent years are estimates. The Census counted rent in 1980, 1990 and 2000 but not in the years between. For those years we start from the census numbers. We follow the rent price index from one census year to the next. So the line lands exactly on each census figure. Economists call this interpolation. 2020 is also an estimate. The Census Bureau did not put out its usual yearly survey results for 2020. So that year sits between 2019 and 2021.
- 2001 to 2004 come from a trial run of a new survey. The American Community Survey is the Census Bureau's large yearly survey of households. Before it started in full, the Bureau ran a smaller test version. Its rent numbers are close but were collected differently.
- Health care before 2000 is modeled. For those years we start from national spending not covered by insurance, per person, and connect it to the 2000 level.
- Some 2025 prices are carried from 2024. The 2025 car price, health spending not covered by insurance and fuel economy are held at 2024 levels until the 2025 figures come out.
Who the typical household leaves out
The typical household is a useful yardstick, but many households earn less or file taxes differently. Two examples show how much the answer changes.
- Take a household at the 20th percentile. It earns less than 80 percent of American households. It would need 53.1 weeks of its pay before taxes to cover the same basic life in 2025, more than a full year. Counted the same way, before taxes, the typical household needs 21.7 weeks.
- Take a single person who earns the typical household's income. A single person pays more tax than a married couple at the same income. That person would need 27.1 weeks of take-home pay, against 25.5 for the couple.
- Renters, as a group, earn less than the typical household, so rent takes a bigger share of a renter's pay than this number shows.
See it for your state, county or city
The map shows the same basic life in weeks of take-home pay for every state from 2000. It also covers counties and cities of 65,000 people or more from 2010. A switch shows rent alone. Only rent and pay change from place to place. Groceries, gas, the car and health care cost the national average everywhere for now. Drag or play the timeline to move through the years, and click a state to see the places inside it.
For each year, the map page also lists who held office on July 1. That includes the president, the House and Senate majorities, the Supreme Court and each state's governor. These are records of who held office. The site makes no claim that any party raised or lowered the number.
Data and citation
Every number on this page from 1980 to 2025 comes from one file you can download. The 1970 rent figure is explained on the methods page. American Compass's Cost-of-Thriving Index asks a related question in a different way; the methods page explains how the two differ.
Kellman, Z. (2026). Citizen Economic Index: the same basic life, priced every year, 1980 to 2025. Actual Intelligence Labs. Data built November 4, 2026.