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What percentage of American adults made a big purchase early in the past year because they expected prices to rise?

17.6% of American adults made a big purchase early in the past year because they expected prices to rise - about 18 in every 100, or 2 in 10. That is the figure published by the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking for 2025.

0 in 100100 in 100
17.6

Where this number comes from

Survey
Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking
What it measured
SHED 2025 item INF5 (“In the past 12 months, did you make any large purchases sooner than you had planned because you expected prices to increase? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------”), counting responses 1=Yes. Computed from the Federal Reserve's public-use microdata with its post-stratification weight WEIGHT. The public file has no design variables or replicate weights, so the standard error follows the Fed's documented design effect: SE = √(deff · p(1−p)/n), deff = 1.144 (the Fed's 1.14, or the Kish design effect of these weights if larger); unweighted n = 12,934.
Population
U.S. adults aged 18 and over
Year
2025
95% confidence interval
16.9% to 18.3% (derived from the published standard error)

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, public-use data (doi:10.17016/datasets.002). Percentages computed here, with attribution.. See the source data

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