Statistics and information on holiday spending and stress:
Reasons why you should simplify
Americans spend APPROX. $1,042 on holiday gifts
(Annual per capita income of a Vietnamese citizen: $280)
Average number of months it takes a credit-card user to
pay off holiday bills: 4
(57% of consumers plan to pay for holiday purchases with
credit)
Total U.S. credit-card debt: OVER $600 BILLION
Rate at which consumer debt is growing in the United
States: TWICE THE RATE OF WAGES
Number of extra tons of trash produced in the U.S. each
year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day: 5 MILLION
Almost 52 percent of women, ages 35 to 54, said their stress levels go up during the holidays. By contrast, 40 percent of surveyed men in the same age bracket said their stress levels increase with the holidays.
Folks 55 and over expereince the least increases in stress at the holidays.
Forty-seven percent making $15,000 to $30,000 said stress levels increase for them during the holidays.
Forty-nine percent of working women with children experience elevated stress levels during the holidays. Forty-eight percent of working women without children expereience higher stress in the holidays. Homemakers, follow at 44 percent.
46 percent from the West experience holiday stress-more than in the Midwest at 43 percent.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 