March 3, 2010

Personal Savings Rate History 1959 to 2010

You can get recent savings rate information at the BEA.   For the 4th quarter of 2009 the personal savings rate was just over 4%.   The personal savings rate is the percentage of personal income saved, so its the total amount saved / total personal income for the nation.

The Fed has historical data on the personal savings rate going back to 1959.    I plotted that data in the chart below to show the trend from 1959 to 2010.



From 1959 to 2010 the Average was 7.0%, the Median was 7.5%, the minimum was 0.8% and the maximum rate hit 14.6%.   From 1959 to 1995 the rate averaged 8.4%.  The average rate from 1995 to 2010 had dropped to 3.4%.

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