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- Grocery bills can add up over the course of a year.
- With help from the INSIDER Data team, we found data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis that shows the average amount a person spends annually on groceries in every state, using data from 2017.
- Washington D.C., Vermont, Hawaii, and Maine averaged the most amount spent on groceries per year, while Alabama, Utah, and Oklahoma spent the least.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Anyone who has ever stepped inside a grocery store knows that money goes quickly when you’re wandering the aisles. Groceries can make up a large fraction of our daily, weekly, or monthly expenses. Not only that, costs can add up to more money than you might realize over the course of a whole year.
Depending on which state you live in, you might pay more or less on average to do your weekly grocery haul.
Read more: 6 ways to save money on groceries, no matter what you buy
The US Bureau of Economic Analysis calculated the average amount a person in each state spends on groceries per year.
To help put this information into context, we created an easy-to-follow map to visualize the data.
Shayanne Gal/Business Insider
In 2017, US residents living in Washington D.C., Vermont, Maine, and Hawaii spent the most money on groceries —$4,577, $4,452, $4,115, and $4,081 per year, respectively. The average person living in Oklahoma, Utah, Alabama, and Arkansas spent the least. Residents living in those states each averaged an annual bill that was nearly half of what people in Washington D.C. spent that year.
People living in rural, farm-heavy states overall tended to spend less on groceries, perhaps because it’s cheaper to produce food in those areas. More remote states like Hawaii and Alaska averaged higher annual grocery spending, as did northern states like Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
- Read more:
The true cost of living in Washington, DC
How much the average American millennial, Gen Xer, and baby boomer spends each year on groceries
What average Americans spend on groceries every month in 22 major cities
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See Also:
- Here’s the astronomical amount of money people spend to attend a wedding — and tips on how to save on this huge expense
- 15 things you should never skimp on
- The biggest signs you’re overpaying on a house — and 5 ways to avoid it
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Erin McDowell)