Reference desk
Apparel numbers.
Without the noise.
Verified U.S. spending and textile end-of-life statistics for writers, researchers, and anyone who needs a clean number with a real source behind it.
What this covers
Spend. Waste.
Context.
These figures pair the latest available U.S. household apparel-spending release with EPA’s most recent municipal-waste textile series. Each statistic keeps its own data year, because “current” should not erase the date on the number.
For a store built around considered pieces, the useful question is not just how much gets bought. It is what happens after the buy.
01
$2,001
Average annual household spending on apparel and related services
U.S. consumer units spent an average of $2,001 on apparel and services in 2024, down 2.0% from 2023. The Bureau of Labor Statistics category includes clothing, footwear, and related services.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditures, 2024 ↗2024 data, released December 19, 202502
2.5%
Share of household spending going to apparel and services
Apparel and services represented 2.5% of average annual U.S. consumer-unit spending in 2024.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditures, 2024 ↗2024 data, released December 19, 202503
17.03M tons
Textiles generated in the U.S. municipal waste stream
EPA estimated 17.03 million tons of textiles were generated in U.S. municipal solid waste in 2018. This measure covers textiles broadly, not apparel alone.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Textiles: Material-Specific Data ↗2018 data, EPA legacy series04
14.7%
Textile recycling rate
EPA reported that 2.5 million tons of textiles were recycled in 2018, equal to a 14.7% recycling rate for all textiles in its municipal solid waste series.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Textiles: Material-Specific Data ↗2018 data, EPA legacy series05
11.3M tons
Textiles sent to landfill
EPA estimated that U.S. landfills received 11.3 million tons of municipal-waste textiles in 2018, or 7.7% of all material landfilled that year.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Textiles: Material-Specific Data ↗2018 data, EPA legacy series06
9.1M tons
Clothing and footwear sent to landfill
EPA says 9.1 million tons of clothing and footwear were landfilled in 2018. Its reuse figures are not included in the generation estimate, so this is not a measure of all donated or resold clothing.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Facts and Figures FAQ ↗2018 data, EPA legacy seriesMethod and sources
Built for
the footnote.
This page only uses named U.S. government sources. BLS consumer-expenditure figures describe average spending per consumer unit. EPA waste figures describe material entering municipal solid waste and do not measure every form of resale, donation, or reuse.
The BLS data are for 2024, released in December 2025. EPA’s textile figures are its 2018 legacy series, which remains the agency’s published material-specific textile dataset at the time of this update. We will refresh this page when a key source publishes a newer comparable release.
Cite this page
Make the source
easy to find.
Suggested citation: TCDESIGNING STORE, “U.S. Apparel Spending & Textile Waste Statistics,” updated October 27, 2026, https://tcdesigning-llc.org/apparel-statistics.
Link directly to any statistic using its number above, such as average household apparel spending.
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