College Students' Spending Habits: Study Breaks College Media Presents the Results of a Survey of 500+ College Students

USA - English

• USA - English

Austin, TX (PRWEB) July 08, 2014 -- Despite the stereotype of the “broke college student”—the young adult who spends so much money on tuition and books that they’re reduced to a diet of ramen and tap water—this demographic actually has a considerable amount of spending power, and many businesses and industries have the potential to capitalize on this valuable consumer base. The question is, however, what exactly are students spending their money on?

Study Breaks College Media recently teamed up with its sister company, Shweiki Media Printing Company, and surveyed 500+ students on their spending habits. From restaurants and bars to marijuana and more, here is what students are spending their money on—and, in many cases, how much they’re spending.

Here are the results…

Students’ Main Source of Income:

-45% Parents
-40% Job
-15% Loans

Students’ Credit Card Preference:

-71% Visa
-11% Master Card
-6% Discover
-3% American Express
-9% None

How Much Money Students Are Spending:

-73% of students are spending $6,000 or more each year on basic living expenses (groceries, rent, utilities, gas); more specifically, 14% spend $18,000 or more.

-66% of students are spending $1,200 or more each year on entertainment (bars, restaurants, live music, media, alcohol, marijuana, etc.); more specifically, 21% spend $3,000 or more, and 6% spend $6,000 or more.

Where and How Students Are Spending Their Money:

-99% of students spend money each month at restaurants; more specifically, 66% of students are spending $50 or more.

-87% of students spend money each year on trips; more specifically, 38% spend $500 or more.

-76% of students spend money each month on beauty.

-70% of students spend money each month at bars.

-70% of students spend money each month on fashion.

-60% of students spend money each month on electronics.

-59% of students spend money each month on live music.

-57% of students spend money each month on media (books, magazines, apps).

-38% of students spend money each month on off-campus gyms and fitness; more specifically, 11% are spending $50 or more.

Regarding Marijuana:

-16% of students surveyed admit to spending money on marijuana every month. More specifically, 10% of surveyed students claim to spend $300 or more per year, and 1% admit to spending at least $6,000 per year.

To put these numbers in perspective…

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 21.8 million students were expected to attend college in fall of 2013. This means, when the results of this survey are applied to this statistic:

-As 66% of students are spending $1,200 or more each year on entertainment (bars, restaurants, live music, media, alcohol, marijuana, etc.), about 14.39 million students are spending that much, which amounts to at least $17.26 billion being spent on entertainment by students each year.

-3,488,000 students spend money on marijuana.

-2,180,000 students are spending $300 or more a year on marijuana—which comes to at least $654 million being spent annually by students on marijuana.

Survey Notes:

-Due to the nature of this survey and students’ assumed hesitance to admit to spending money on marijuana—particularly when being asked to provide their email address—the results for this particular question are expected to be on the low side.

-For a survey of 508 people for a population of 21,800,000, there is a 99% confidence level with a +/- 5.7% error level. This means that if the survey were to be conducted 100 times, 99 times out of 100, the results would be within +/- 5.7% of the results of the first survey. (For info on how this was calculated, please see custominsight.com.)

Click here to view the complete results of the survey on college students' spending habits.

Study Breaks College Media provides a one-stop solution for small businesses, providing them with big marketing strategies and delivering college students.

Study Breaks magazine is an award-winning line of monthly entertainment magazines for college students with a mission can best be explained through its slogan: We are college life. Published by Shweiki Media Printing Company, it is distributed in five Texas cities (Austin, Houston, San Antonio, San Marcos and Lubbock). (Studybreaks.com)

David Reimherr, Shweiki Media, +1 (512) 480-0893, [email protected]