Family photography purchasing statistics are not published as a single national series. The closest official measures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cover household spending on photographic equipment, supplies, and services, plus consumer prices for photographers, photo processing, equipment, and supplies. Together, these figures show the scale of photography purchases, recent price movement, and the small weight photography carries in the broader U.S. consumer basket.
Contents
- Household spending on photography
- Photography compared with other entertainment spending
- Recent prices for photographer services
- Equipment and supplies price movement
- Historical changes in photography prices
- Photography’s weight in the CPI
- How to read the latest purchasing signals
Household spending on photography
The clearest household-spending benchmark comes from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey. In 2022, U.S. consumer units spent an average of $50.28 on photographic equipment, supplies, and services. The category includes photographer fees, photo equipment, film, and processing. This is an average across consumer units, not a quoted price for a family portrait session or a measure of what every family purchased. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer expenditures in 2022
The category changed substantially across the two preceding annual comparisons. Average spending increased 40.3% from 2020 to 2021, then increased another 29.5% from 2021 to 2022. Those are changes in average consumer-unit spending, so they describe the movement of reported outlays in the category rather than a pure price index. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer expenditures in 2022
The survey covered 134.090 million U.S. consumer units in 2022. In BLS terminology, a consumer unit is the spending unit used for the survey; it is the relevant population basis for the average rather than a count of family photography clients. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditures—2023, Table A
For readers evaluating the place of photography in a household budget, the $50.28 figure is best treated as an annual category average. It combines different kinds of purchases and services, and it does not separate family portraits from weddings, school photographs, hobby equipment, printing, or other photographic activity. The available official measure therefore provides useful purchasing context while leaving the family-specific portion unidentified.
Photography compared with other entertainment spending
Photography was a relatively small category beside several other BLS entertainment groupings in 2022. Average consumer-unit spending on other entertainment supplies, equipment, and services was $697.57, compared with $50.28 for photographic equipment, supplies, and services. Average spending on pets, toys, hobbies, and playground equipment was $907.91, while average spending on audio and visual equipment and services was $1,020.22. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer expenditures in 2022
| 2022 spending category | Average per U.S. consumer unit |
|---|---|
| Photographic equipment, supplies, and services | $50.28 |
| Other entertainment supplies, equipment, and services | $697.57 |
| Pets, toys, hobbies, and playground equipment | $907.91 |
| Audio and visual equipment and services | $1,020.22 |
These comparisons are category comparisons, not estimates of a family’s willingness to pay for professional photography. They do show that photography purchases represented a much narrower annual spending category than the three broader groupings listed above in the 2022 survey. Because the photography category includes both goods and services, the $50.28 average should not be read as an average family-session price.
Recent prices for photographer services
The BLS consumer price index separates photographer and photo-processing prices from photographic equipment and supplies. In August 2026, photographer-and-photo-processing prices were 3.8% higher than in August 2025. The category rose 2.0% from July to August 2026, both on an unadjusted and a seasonally adjusted basis in the supplied August release. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U detailed expenditure categories—August 2026, Table 2
The recent monthly record also includes declines. On an unadjusted basis, the category fell 3.1% from May to June 2026. It then fell 0.1% from June to July 2026 on a seasonally adjusted basis, before the 2.0% seasonally adjusted increase from July to August. These measures describe price-index movement, not the number of portrait bookings or the price of a specific photographer’s package. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U detailed expenditure categories—August 2026, Table 2
In the same August 2026 release, the photographer-and-photo-processing category had a 0.036% relative importance in the U.S. CPI basket, using the July 2026 weight. Relative importance indicates the category’s weight in the index; it is not the share of an individual family’s budget. The category’s August 2026 movement had a 0.002 percentage-point effect on all-items CPI over the year from August 2025 to August 2026. BLS, CPI-U detailed expenditure categories—August 2026, Table 2; BLS, CPI-U 12-month analysis table—August 2026
Equipment and supplies price movement
Equipment and supplies followed a different recent pattern. In August 2026, photographic-equipment-and-supplies prices were 0.6% lower than in August 2025. The category rose 1.2% from July to August 2026, both unadjusted and seasonally adjusted. Before that increase, it fell 2.7% from May to June 2026 on an unadjusted basis and 1.4% from June to July 2026 on a seasonally adjusted basis. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U detailed expenditure categories—August 2026, Table 2
The equipment-and-supplies category had a 0.025% relative importance in the U.S. CPI basket in August 2026, using the July 2026 weight. Read alongside the 3.8% year-over-year increase for photographer and photo processing, the figures distinguish two purchase decisions: paying for a service and buying photographic goods. The supplied BLS data shows those categories moving differently over the same year. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U detailed expenditure categories—August 2026, Table 2
Historical changes in photography prices
The historical record shows that photographer-service prices have not moved in one direction continuously. In February 2023, photographer-and-photo-processing prices were 8.6% higher than in February 2022, and the category rose 1.2% from January to February 2023 on an unadjusted basis. The category also rose 2.7% from December 2022 to January 2023 seasonally adjusted. Its relative importance was 0.039% in the February 2023 release, based on the January 2023 weight. BLS, CPI-U detailed expenditure categories—February 2023
By January 2024, photographer-and-photo-processing prices were 4.1% higher than in January 2023. The category’s relative importance was 0.052%, using the December 2023 weight. A July 2024 release recorded a 0.2% seasonally adjusted increase from June to July 2024; the median price change for that month had a 0.36 percentage-point standard error. BLS, CPI-U detailed expenditure categories—January 2024; BLS, Consumer Price Index—July 2024
The following autumn was weaker. In September 2024, photographer-and-photo-processing prices were 4.8% lower than in September 2023, with a -0.003 percentage-point effect on all-items CPI. In September 2025, prices were 2.3% lower than in September 2024. The category had 0.053% relative importance in that release, contributed -0.001 percentage points to all-items CPI over the year, and had a 2.15 percentage-point standard error for its median price change. BLS, CPI-U detailed expenditure categories—September 2024; BLS, CPI-U detailed expenditure categories—September 2025
Photography’s weight in the CPI
The BLS relative-importance tables provide a broader view of photography’s place in the U.S. city-average CPI. In December 2023, the overall photography grouping had 0.077% relative importance. Within it, photographic equipment and supplies had 0.024%, photographers and photo processing had 0.052%, and unsampled photography had 0.001%. BLS, Relative importance of components in the CPI—December 2023
In December 2025, the overall photography grouping had 0.064% relative importance. The component weights were 0.027% for photographic equipment and supplies, 0.037% for photographers and photo processing, and 0.000% for unsampled photography. These are U.S. city-average CPI weights, not household-level spending shares and not a forecast of future family photography demand. BLS, Relative importance of components in the CPI—December 2025
How to read the latest purchasing signals
The latest available monthly evidence in the supplied releases covers February 2026 as well as August 2026. In February 2026, photographer-and-photo-processing prices were 0.6% higher than in February 2025, while the category fell 0.1% from January to February 2026 on an unadjusted basis. It had 0.038% relative importance, using the January 2026 weight, and its monthly median price change had a 0.41 percentage-point standard error. BLS, Consumer Price Index—February 2026
The category had risen 1.6% from December 2025 to January 2026 on a seasonally adjusted basis. A separate May 2025 release reported 0.055% relative importance for photographer and photo processing, a 0.000 percentage-point seasonally adjusted effect on all-items CPI from April to May 2025, and a 0.41 percentage-point standard error for the May median price change. BLS, Consumer Price Index—February 2026; BLS, Consumer Price Index—May 2025
For family photography purchasing decisions, the practical reading is narrow but useful: official U.S. data identifies a $50.28 annual average for a broad photography spending category in 2022, shows service prices higher year over year in August 2026, and shows equipment prices slightly lower year over year at the same time. The figures do not estimate the price of an individual family session, the number of family purchases, or the share of spending attributable specifically to portraits.