Kids' Allowance Stats

Helpful allowance averages, medians and other statistics for parents and kids.

Check out the numbers that answer the most frequently asked questions about allowances:

When To Begin? How Much To Give?

Tied To Chores? How Often To Pay?

How Many Receive? Save A Portion?

When To Stop? Other Stats

Do you know of other surveys, studies or polls that may be of interest to Kids' Money parents and kids. Please take a minute and e-mail us the results and we will include them in this section. We welcome and appreciate your contribution.

When To Begin?

CIBC

A random sample of 469 Canadian parents with children 18 or older by Environics Research Group, Ltd. for CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) came up with the following average age to begin giving allowances:

Global / Decima

The Global / Decima Parent Poll, a 1997 sample of 654 Canadian parents, provides the following allowance statistic:

19% consider 5 year-olds too young to receive an allowance.

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How Much To Give?

Kids' Money

Our ongoing survey yields the following average weekly allowance amounts for each age and gender indicated (updated 12/4/99):

Age	All	Boys	Girls
3	3.20	3.03	3.38
4	2.85	2.48	3.29
5	3.15	3.03	3.27
6	3.85	3.32	3.99
7	4.10	4.12	4.07
8	4.32	4.45	4.12
9	5.52	5.33	5.71
10	7.18	6.56	7.83
11	7.92	6.80	9.07
12	9.58	9.38	9.85
13	9.52	9.95	9.10
14	13.47	13.50	13.51
15	15.57	16.65	14.38
16	17.84	15.79	19.62
17	30.66	27.65	35.61
18	40.10	70.57	24.86

If these figures don't include your numbers, take the survey now!

Here's some other interesting observations:

The most common weekly allowance amounts is $5.00 for 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 year old boys; as well as for 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 year old girls.
Many parents pay all their kids the same amount regardless of age.
Some parents pay their kids allowances through the early 20's.
The oldest person reported to receive an allowance is a 32 year old and the youngest is a 1 year old.

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Youth Monitor

A 1997 survey by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman for Youth Monitor, a syndicated service of Nickelodeon, revealed the following:

Weekly Amount	Ages 6-8	Ages 9-11	Ages 12-17
No money	40%	31%	29%
$1.00	12%	4%	2%
$2.00	11%	7%	2%
$3.00	7%	8%	2%
$4.00	2%	3%	0%
$5.00	17%	24%	15%
$6.00-10.00	9%	17%	23%
$11.00-20.00	2%	5%	19%
$21.00 or more	0%	1%	8%

Youth Monitor

A 1993 survey by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman for Youth Monitor, a syndicated service of Nickelodeon, revealed the following average weekly allowance amounts for each age group indicated:

6 to 8 year olds - $ 1.99
9 to 11 year olds - $ 4.17
12 and 13 year olds - $ 5.82
14 and 15 year olds - $ 9.68
16 and 17 year olds - $10.80

Liberty Financial Young Investor

A May, 1993 survey by Louis Harris & Associates for Liberty Financial's Young Investor Program shows the following average weekly allowance amounts for children in grades 8 through 12:

Overall - $14
Male - $13
Female - $15
8th Grade - $10
9th Grade - $13
10th Grade - $15
11th Grade - $17
12th Grade - $18

Zillions

A 1995 survey of 800 kids between the ages of 9 and 14 by Zillions magazine results in the following median weekly allowance amounts for the age groups indicated:

Ages 9 and 10 - $3
Ages 11 to 14 - $5

CIBC

A random sample of 469 Canadian parents with children 18 or older by Environics Research Group, Ltd. for CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) came up with the following allowance amounts:

Under age 6 - $ 2
Ages 6 to 11 - $ 5
Ages 12 to 15 - $10

Global / Decima

The Global / Decima Parent Poll, a 1997 sample of 654 Canadian parents, provides the following average weekly allowance amounts (Canadian):

Age 5 - $3.50
Age 10 - $7.00
Age 15 - $15.00

Sixth Grade Survey

64 sixth graders surveyed receive allowances in the following amounts:

Average - $6.00
Less than $1.00 - 6
$1.01 to $2.00 - 7
$2.01 to $3.00 - 7
$3.01 to $4.00 - 7
$4.01 to $5.00 - 7
$5.01 to $6.00 - 7
More than $6.00 - 20

High School Awareness Survey

The High School Awareness Survey indicates the following median allowance amount:

Recent Poll

A recent poll of 2,505 teens showed the following average weekly allowance amounts by age and sex:

Ages 13 to 15
- Boys - $13.50
- Girls - $14.50
Ages 16 to 19
- Boys - $25.90
- Girls - $26.85

Unnamed National Survey

An unnamed national survey provides the following weekly allowance amounts:

Age 5 - $1.40
Age 16 - $8.25

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Tied To Chores?

Liberty Financial Young Investor

A May, 1993 survey by Louis Harris & Associates for Liberty Financial's Young Investor Program shows the following percentage of kids that have to do chores for allowances:

Overall - 77%
Male - 78%
Female - 75%
8th Grade - 81%
9th Grade - 77%
10th Grade - 78%
11th Grade - 72%
12th Grade - 70%

CIBC

A random sample of 469 Canadian parents with children 18 or older by Environics Research Group, Ltd. for CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) came up with the following views on tying allowances to chores:

One-half think kids should receive allowances for chores and good behavior.

Global / Decima

The Global / Decima Parent Poll, a 1997 sample of 654 Canadian parents, indicates the following percentage of parents feel they kids need to earn their allowance:

Sixth Grade Survey

Percentage of sixth graders surveyed who do chores for their allowances:

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How Often To Pay?

Kids' Money

Responses from 496 parents as to how frequently they give allowances:

Weekly - 368 (74%)
Biweekly - 54 (11%)
Monthly - 49 (10%)
Other - 25 (5%)
- Daily - 5
- Twice a month - 5
- When work is done - 3
- Inconsistent - 2
- Now and then - 1
- Whenever - 1
- Whenever earned - 1
- Upon completion of star chart - 1
- As earned - 1
- When they don't have the opportunity to work in family business because it is seasonal - 1
- When I feel he deserves it - 1
- When I remember - 1
- With good grades - 1
- Every other day - 1